MANILA -- The Philippines booked a balance of payments (BOP) surplus of $1.5 billion in October 2023, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Monday.
This was higher than the $711 million BOP surplus in the same month last year, the BSP said.
The central bank said this reflects inflows arising mainly from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, its net foreign exchange operations, and net income from its investments abroad.
These figures bring the cumulative BOP position to a $3.2 billion surplus, a reversal from the $7.1 billion deficit in the same period a year ago.
The BSP said this reflected the improvement in the balance of trade alongside the higher net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services, and foreign borrowings by the national government.
Meanwhile, the country's gross international reserves (GIR) increased to $101 billion, from $98.1 billion the year prior.
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.
It is also about 5.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity, the bank added.
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