Manila [Philippines], December 20: The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a 756 million U.S. dollar deficit in November, higher than the 123 million dollar BOP deficit recorded a year earlier, the Philippine central bank said on Monday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP deficit in November reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government's payments of its foreign currency debt obligations and its net foreign exchange operations.
The November BOP deficit brought the current year-to-date BOP level to a 7.9 billion dollar deficit, a reversal from the 353 million dollar surplus recorded in the same period a year ago.
The BSP attributed the cumulative BOP deficit to the widening trade in goods deficit as goods imports continued to surpass goods exports on the back of the increase in international commodity prices and resumption in domestic economic activities.
The BSP said the gross international reserves (GIR) level increased to 95.1 billion dollars as of end-November, adding that the latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.2 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
Moreover, it added the GIR level is about 5.8 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.
Source: Xinhua
