Phl payments position surplus slips to $117M in September

The Philippine balance of payments (BOP) position remains in a surplus for the seventh consecutive month in September, but the surplus position fell from a month earlier and year-on-year levels, GMA News reported.

The uncertainty stemming from a possible Federal Reserve rate hike this year kept the state of financial markets volatile.

Data released by the central bank on Wednesday showed the BOP registered a $117-million surplus in September, narrower than the $219 million a year earlier and the $682 million surplus last August.

“September was a particularly challenging month, because people thought that the US Fed would adjust monetary policies. So there was a lot of uncertainty and the global financial markets proved to be more volatile,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo told reporters in a briefing.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was expected to raise interest rates when it met on September 20 to 21 meeting. Instead, the Fed sent a strong signal it might go for tighter monetary policy during its December meeting.

“The surplus was actually driven by the foreign exchange deposits by the National Government, and of course the results of the BSP foreign exchange operations, which means that there was a net increase in the gross international reserves (GIR),” Guinigundo noted.

The latest figures brought the year-todate BOP position to a $1.648-billion surplus from $2.616 billion a year earlier. The central bank has set a $2-billion surplus BOP for the full-year 2016.

“If the current account continues to be in surplus position because of the robustness in the growth of remittances and BPOs (business process outsourcing) continue to be strong at more than 15 percent so far and portfolio investments and foreign direct investment continue to provide additional growth impulses, then we should be able to see the BOP target of P2 billion for 2016 doable,” Guinigundo said.