The country’s gross international reserves climbed by $900 million to $108.05 billion as of end-August from $107.15 billion in July, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Monday.
"The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 12.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income," the BSP said in a statement.
"Moreover, it is also about 7.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.4 times based on residual maturity," it said.
The BSP said the increase in the reserves was due mainly to the additional allocation of Special Drawing Rights to the Philippines, given the International Monetary Fund's efforts to increase global liquidity amid the pandemic.
This was partly offset by the government's foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP as it settled its foreign currency debt obligations and paid for various expenditures and the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.
Meanwhile, the net international reserves, which refer to the difference between the GIR and total short-term liabilities, also went up by $890 million to $108.04 billion as of end-August 2021 from $107.15 billion in the previous month.