Philippines posts 606 mln USD BOP deficit in June

MANILA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a deficit of 606 million U.S. dollars in June, lower than the 1.6-billion-dollar BOP deficit recorded a year ago, according to the Philippine central bank data released Wednesday night.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP deficit in June reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government's net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations.

Notwithstanding the deficit in June, the Southeast Asian country's cumulative BOP position registered a 2.3-billion-dollar surplus in the first six months of the year, the BSP added.

This level is a reversal from the 3.1 billion U.S. dollars deficit recorded in the same period a year ago, the BSP said.

Based on preliminary data, the BSP attributed the cumulative BOP surplus to inflows from personal remittances, the national government's net foreign borrowings, trade-in services, and foreign direct investments.

The BSP said the gross international reserves (GIR) level decreased to 99.4 billion dollars as of end-June, representing a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.3 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

The GIR level is about 5.7 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4 times based on residual maturity, it added.