These inflows were offset, however, by outflows representing payments made by the NG on its foreign exchange obligations during the month in review.
The overall balance of payments (BoP) position, or what is left after the country’s foreign currency expenses are deducted from its earnings, posted a higher surplus in November, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday said.
The surplus at $541 million, however, is lower than the posted $847 million surplus in the same month a year ago. At this level, the surplus represents a 231.9 percent increase from surplus of only $163 million in October.
“Inflows in November 2019 reflected the BSP’s foreign exchange operations, increase in the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits and 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,” it added.
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On a cumulative basis, the latest BoP position stood as a surplus at an aggregate of $6.27 billion, a reversal from deficit of $4.74 billion deficit in the first 11 months last year.
“The surplus may be attributed partly to lower trade in goods account deficit, higher net receipts in the trade in services account and personal remittance inflows from overseas Filipinos, and net inflows of foreign direct investments and foreign portfolio investments,” the central bank said.
The data reflect a final gross international reserves (GIR) level of $86.23 billion as of end-November 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,” the BSP said.
“It is also equivalent to 5.4 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual maturity,” it concluded.
Previously, the central bank projected the overall BoP position this year as a surplus totaling $4.8 billion, an upward revision from surplus of only $3.7 billion equal to 1.3 percent of the country’s local output or the gross domestic product.
