MANILA - The Philippines posted a balance of payments surplus of $1.14 billion in October, which was lower than the $3.44 billion BOP surplus recorded in the same month last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Wednesday.
The BOP surplus last month offset deficits in previous months, leading to a cumulative surplus of $476 million for the January to October period, the BSP said. This was a reversal of the $665 million deficit for the first nine months of the year.
Despite this, the current year-to-date BOP level is lower than the $10.31 billion surplus recorded in the same period a year ago.
The BSP said the BOP surplus last month reflected inflows arising mainly from the National Government's net foreign currency deposits with the BSP and the BSP’s income from its investments abroad.
"The BOP position reflects an increase in the final gross international reserves (GIR) level to $107.89 billion as of end-October 2021 from $106.6 billion as of end-September 2021," the central bank said.
The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 10.8 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
Moreover, it is also about 7.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.5 times based on residual maturity.
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