BOP deficit reaches $4.75 billion in 11 months

The country’s balance of payments (BOP) deficit dropped to $4.747 billion for the first 11 months from the previous $5.594 billion after reporting a surplus of $847 million in November.

The end-November BOP deficit is higher compared to same period last year of $1.78 billion. In the meantime, the $847-million surplus for November is only the second monthly surplus recorded this year, after $1.272 billion last August. The November suplus is also a reversal of November 2017’s $44-million shortfall.

In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said “inflows in November stemmed mainly from the BSP's foreign exchange operations and its income from its investments abroad during the month.”

The BSP added that these were “partially offset, however, by the payments made by the National Government for its foreign exchange obligations and its net foreign currency withdrawals during the month in review.”

As for the higher January-November cumulative BOP deficit, the central bank said this “may be attributed partly to the widening merchandise trade deficit (based on the Philippine Statistics Authority's preliminary data) for the first ten months of the year that was brought about by the sustained rise in imports of raw materials and intermediate goods as well as capital goods to support domestic economic expansion.”