The country’s balance of payments position posted a deficit of $216 million in November, lower than the $756-million shortfall recorded in the same month last year, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed Wednesday.
“The BOP deficit in November 2023 reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations,” the BSP said.
It said that in the first eleven months of 2023, the cumulative BOP position registered a surplus of $3 billion, a reversal from the $7.9-billion deficit recorded a year ago.
“Based on preliminary data, this development reflected mainly the improvement in the balance of trade alongside the higher net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services and foreign borrowings by the national government,” the BSP said.
“Further, net inflows from foreign direct investments contributed to the surplus, albeit lower during the covered period,” it said.
The gross international reserves (GIR) level also increased to $102.7 billion as of end-November 2023 from $101.0 billion in October.
The BSP said the latest GIR level represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.6 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
It was also about six times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity.
BOP is the difference in total value between payments into and out of a country over a period.