The balance of payments (BoP) position, reflecting what is left after the country’s foreign currency expenses are deducted from its earnings, posted a higher surplus in October, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

The BoP at $163 million is a reversal from the $458 million deficit in the same month a year ago. At this level, the surplus represents a 328.94 percent increase from surplus of only $38 million in September.

“Inflows in October 2019 reflected the increase in the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits and the BSP’s income from its investments abroad,” the BSP said.

“These inflows were offset, however, by outflows representing payments made by the NG on its foreign exchange obligations during the month in review,” the BSP added.

On a cumulative basis, the BoP position stood as a surplus totaling $5.73 billion, a turnaround from a $5.59 billion deficit in the first ten months last year.

“The surplus may be attributed partly to personal remittance inflows from overseas Filipinos and net inflows of foreign direct investments,” the central bank said.

According to monetary officials, the latest data reflect a final gross international reserves (GIR) level of $85.83 billion as of end-October 2019.

“ At this level, the GIR represents a more-than ample liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” it said.

“It is also equivalent to 5.5 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity,” the BSP said.