The gross international reserves, which protect the country from external volatilities, climbed to a record high of $86.16 billion as of end-September from $74.94 billion a year ago, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.
The figure eclipsed the previous all-time high of $86.139 billion registered in October 2016. It also increased month-on-month from $86.03 billion in August.
“The increase in the GIR level month-on-month reflects the national government’s foreign currency deposits and BSP’s income from its investments abroad,” the BSP said in a statement.
“However, the increase in reserves was partially tempered by payments made by the national government for servicing its foreign exchange obligations,” it said.
Data showed the GIR in September consisted of $73.44 billion in BSP’s foreign investments mostly in the form of US treasuries, $8 billion in gold holdings, almost $3 billion in foreign exchange, $1.17 billion in special drawing rights and $561 million in reserve position in the International Monetary Fund.
The Bangko Sentral said the reserve level provides an ample external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.5 months worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
Data showed that the GIR exceeded the country’s external debt estimated at $81.3 billion as of end-June.
It is also equivalent to 5.4 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.9 times based on residual maturity.
Short-term debt based on residual maturity refers to outstanding external debt with original maturity of one year or less, plus principal payments on medium- and long-term loans of the public and private sectors falling due within the next 12 months.
Net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, also increased by $0.13 billion to $86.15 billion as of end-September 2019 from end-August level of $86.02 billion.
The strong reserve position allowed the BSP to manage the fluctuation of the peso against the US dollar this year despite the external challenges. The peso appreciated 1.4 percent since the start of the year to close at 51.86 against the greenback Monday.
The BSP was originally expecting the GIR to end 2019 at $83 billion, up from the 2018 closing of $79.193 billion.