THE country ended 2024 with its dollar reserves at over $100 billion for the second consecutive year, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Based on the preliminary data from the central bank, the country’s Gross International Reserves [GIR] reached $106.84 billion as of the end of December 2024.
The data showed the GIR was at $103.75 billion as of the end of 2023. Prior to 2023, the GIR also breached $100 billion in 2021 at $108.79 billion and 2020 at $110.12 billion.
“The BSP’s reserve assets consist of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the IMF (International Monetary Fund), and special drawing rights,” the BSP said.
However, the GIR declined 1.52 percent from the $108.49 billion posted as of the end of November 2024. It can also be noted that the GIR, which peaked at $112.7 in September 2024, has been in decline for the past three months.
“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the BSP net foreign exchange operations; drawdown on the national government’s [NG] deposits with the BSP to pay off its foreign currency debt obligations; and downward valuation adjustments in the BSP’s gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market,” the BSP said.
BSP said the latest GIR level represents a more-than-adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
However, this import cover is the lowest since May when the import cover was also 7.5 months. The lowest import cover of the GIR was recorded at 7.4 months, posted in April and February 2024.
“By convention, GIR is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three-months’ worth of the country’s imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said.
Meanwhile, BSP data showed the GIR is about 3.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
The BSP explained that short-term debt based on residual maturity refers to outstanding external debt with original maturity of one year or less, plus principal payments on medium- and long-term loans of the public and private sectors falling due within the next 12 months.
The level of GIR, as of a particular period, is considered adequate if it provides at least 100-percent cover for the payment of the country’s foreign liabilities, public and private, falling due within the immediate 12-month period.
The data also showed the net international reserves (NIR) declined by $1.63 billion to $106.83 billion as of end-December 2024 from the end-November 2024 level of $108.46 billion.
NIR is the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets or the GIR and reserve liabilities or the short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the IMF.
