BOP yields $2.7-B surplus in January
The country’s balance of payments (BOP) remained in surplus position for the month of January at $2.70 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
This is a reversal of the $531 million deficit reported same time in 2018.
At the end of 2018, the overall BOP was in shortfall of $2.30 billion while the December BOP was in surplus of $2.44 billion. The January surplus is the third month of BOP surpluses reported. November 2018 was also in excess of $847 million.
In a statement released late Tuesday, the BSP said inflows in January 2019 came from the National Government's (NG) net foreign currency deposits, as well as from the BSP's foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad.
“These were partially offset, however, by the payments made by the NG for its foreign exchange obligations during the month in review (while) the net inflows in foreign portfolio investments (net BSP-registered transactions based on custodian banks' reports) contributed partly to the BOP surplus recorded in January,” the BSP explained.
The BSP also reported a final gross international reserves (GIR) of $82.49 billion for January which it said is still “more than ample liquidity buffer”.
At this level, the GIR is equivalent to 7.3 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, and up to 6.3 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity, as well as 4.2 times based on residual maturity.
Last year’s $2.30 billion BOP deficit was lower than what BSP estimated of $5.5 billion, mainly because the BSP was buying foreign exchange or the US dollar, which propped up the GIR level by end-2018.
The 2018 full-year BOP deficit is however still higher compared to 2017’s $863 million deficit.
The central bank has projected a BOP deficit this year of $3.5 billion.