The country’s foreign currency reserves rose by some $450 million in August no matter that foreign fund managers, spooked in part by the US-China trade tension and protest activities in Hong Kong, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported. Bob Dungo Jr.

Preliminary data show the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) rising only $430 million to $85.61 billion as of end-August 2019 from $85.18 billion as of end-July 2019.

This was announced on Friday by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno. He said the month-on-month increase in the GIR reflects the national government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits and the BSP’s income from its investments abroad. However, the increase in reserves was partially tempered by payments made by the NG for servicing its foreign exchange obligations.

The August GIR serves as ample external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also equivalent to 5.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.

Net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, likewise increased by $43 million to $85.6 billion as of end-August 2019 from the end-July 2019 level of $85.17 billion.