BoP surplus hits 6-year high in Jan
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2019 16:22:15 +0000
The country’s balance of payments (BoP) surplus hit a six-year high in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Tuesday.
January’s $2.70-billion result was higher than the $2.44-billion surplus a month earlier and a reversal from the $531-million deficit posted a year ago.
It was also the largest since July 2012 when the payments position stood at a surplus of $3.182 billion.
“Inflows in January 2019 stemmed mainly from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits, BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad,” the central bank said in a statement, adding that these were partially offset by government payments for maturing foreign exchange obligations.
The Bangko Sentral also said that net inflows in foreign portfolio investments contributed partly to the January BoP surplus.
Net foreign portfolio investments remained positive, rising to their highest in two months at $762.82-million.
The latest payments balance position, the BSP said, is consistent with the country’s final gross international reserves (GIR) of $82.49 billion as of end-January.
“At this level, the GIR represents a more than ample liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said.
The GIR is also equivalent to 6.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual
maturity, it added.
Last year, the BoP ended at a deficit of $2.306 billion, wider than the $863 million recorded in 2017 but lower than Bangko Sentral’s $5.5-billion deficit forecast.
The post BoP surplus hits 6-year high in Jan appeared first on The Manila Times Online.