The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Tuesday that the BOP deficit in November this year reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government's payments of its foreign currency debt obligations.
Notwithstanding the deficit in November, the BSP said the cumulative BOP position registered a surplus of 3 billion dollars in the first eleven months of the year, a reversal from the 7.9 billion dollars deficit recorded in the same period a year ago.
Based on preliminary data, the BSP said this development reflected mainly the improvement in the trade balance alongside the higher net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services, and foreign borrowings by the national government.
"Further, net inflows from foreign direct investments contributed to the surplus, albeit lower during the covered period," the central bank said.
The BSP said the gross international reserves (GIR) level increased to 102.7 billion dollars as of end-November.
The November GIR level is about 6 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity, the BSP added.
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