Philippines posts 62 mln USD surplus in July

MANILA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a surplus of 62 million U.S. dollars in July 2024, a reversal from the BOP deficit of 53 million dollars recorded in July 2023, the country's central bank said Monday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP surplus in July reflected inflows mainly from the net income from the BSP investments abroad and the national government's net foreign currency deposits with the BSP.

The BOP surplus in July brought the year-to-date BOP level to a surplus of 1.5 billion dollars, lower than the surplus of 2.2 billion dollars recorded in the same period of 2023.

Based on preliminary data, the BSP said in a press release that the cumulative BOP surplus reflected mainly the narrowing trade in goods deficit alongside the continued net inflows from personal remittances, net foreign direct investment, trade in services, net foreign borrowings by the national government, and net foreign portfolio investments.

The central bank said the BOP position also reflected an increase in the final gross international reserves (GIR) level to 106.7 billion dollars as of end-July 2024 from 105.2 billion dollars as of end-June 2024.

It added that the latest GIR level represented a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.9 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

Moreover, it is about 6.1 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.