PH gross reserves fall to $100 billion in September

MANILA — The country’s gross international reserves fell to $100 billion in September, from $104.8 billion in August, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Thursday.

The BSP said this is because of its downward valuation adjustments, driven by changes in the prices of the BSP’s gold holdings and foreign currency–denominated reserve assets.

The decrease was also driven by net foreign exchange operations, the national government’s drawdowns on its foreign currency deposits with the BSP for external debt service, and the government’s net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP.

The BSP said the foreign currency buffer is enough to cover 6.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments for services and primary income, while providing about 3.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.