The country’s balance of payments position yielded a deficit of $756 million in November, wider than the $123-million shortfall a year ago after the government settled some of its foreign debts, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Tuesday.
“The BOP deficit in November 2022 reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ net foreign exchange operations,” the BSP said in a statement.
The BOP deficit in November brought the 11-month BOP level to a $7.9-billion deficit, a reversal from the $353-million surplus recorded in the same period last year.
“Based on preliminary data, this cumulative BOP deficit was due to the widening trade in goods deficit as goods imports continued to surpass goods exports on the back of the increase in international commodity prices and resumption in domestic economic activities,” the BSP said.
Meanwhile, the gross international reserves increased to $95.1 billion as of end-November from $94.0 billion in October.
The BSP said the latest GIR level represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It was also about 5.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity, the BSP said.
BOP is the difference between payments into and out of a country over a period.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the BOP deficit in November hovered among the narrowest levels in seven months that could have manifested the narrowing of the trade deficit/net imports recently.
“For the coming months, especially in December, BOP data could still improve with the expected seasonal increase in the country’s structural inflows, in terms of the seasonal increase in OFW remittances [near record highs on a monthly basis], BPO revenues [record highs on a yearly basis], export revenues [new record highs on a monthly basis], foreign tourism receipts [more than $2 billion from February to October], POGO revenues, among others, in view of the holiday season that culminates in December,” Ricafort said.