THE country’s gross international reserves declined to a 39-month low of $80.1 billion at the end of March this year from $80.4 billion in end-February, pulled down mainly by the government’s settlement of maturing foreign exchange obligations, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas officer-in-charge Deputy Governor Cyd Tuano Amador said Friday.
Data showed the reserves were the lowest level since $79.54 in December 2014.
Amador in a statement also attributed the decline in reserves in March to outflows arising from the foreign exchange operations of the Bangko Sentral.
“These were partially tempered by the national government’s net foreign currency deposits [which include proceeds from the issuance of renminbi-denominated bonds (Panda Bonds) for the NG’s general financing requirements] and revaluation adjustments on the BSP’s gold holdings resulting from the increase in the price of gold in the international market,” Amador said.
She said the end-March 2018 level of reserves served as an ample external liquidity buffer and was equivalent to 7.8 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The reserves were also equivalent to 5.6 times the country’s short-term external
debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity.
Net international reserves, which refer to the difference between the Bangio Sentral’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, also decreased by $0.3 billion to $80.1 billion at the end of March end-March from the end-February level of $80.4 billion.
The government in late March raised 1.46 billion renminbi or around $230 million from the issuance of Panda bonds in the onshore Chinese bond market.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the order book for the issuance reached 9.22 billion renminbi or 6.22 times the issue size of 1.46 billion renminbi and fetched a coupon of 5 percent “or 35 basis points over the two-year Chinese bond rate of 4.65 percent.”
She said the total tenders for the issuance were the “highest ever order book” so far for a Panda bond sale.
Gross international reserves ended 2017 at $81.5 billion, surpassing the target of $80.7 billion for the year, due mainly to inflows arising from the Bangko Sentral foreign exchange operations and revaluation adjustments on its gold holdings.