April 2022 GIR level settles at $106.76-B

THE country’s gross international reserves (GIR) level, based on preliminary data, settled at US$106.76 billion as of end-April 2022 from the end-March 2022 GIR level of $107.31 billion.

The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 9.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

Moreover, it is also about seven times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.5 times based on residual maturity.

The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the National Government’s (NG) foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP as the NG settled its foreign currency debt obligations and paid for various expenditures as well as the downward adjustment in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market.

Similarly, the net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (shortterm foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund), decreased by $0.56 billion to $106.74 billion as of end-April 2022 from the end-March 2022 level of $107.3 billion. /