The country’s gross international reserves declined to $98.7 billion as of end-September 2023 from $99.6 billion in August as the government settled some of its foreign debts, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said over the weekend.
It said the latest GIR level still represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It was also about 5.7 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.6 times based on residual maturity.
“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations and the downward adjustments in the value of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market,” the BSP said.
The net international reserves, or the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets and reserve liabilities or short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund, decreased to $98.7 billion as of end-September from the end-August level of $99.5 billion.
Michael Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the reserves in the coming months could be supported by the continued growth in structural inflows from OFW remittances, business process outsourcing revenues, exports, tourism receipts and foreign investment inflows.
Ricafort said the proceeds of the US dollar-denominated Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) issuance/foreign borrowings by the national government in October could reach more than $1 billion, while the proposed debut of Islamic bond/sukuk bond issuance estimated at about $1 billion later in 2023 could also support the reserves level.