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MANILA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) – The Philippines’ global balance of payments (BOP) continued to record a surplus of US $ 8 million in July, bringing the year-to-date surplus to US $ 4.12 billion. reported the Central Philippines. bank said Friday.
“The balance of payments surplus in July 2020 mainly reflected the inflows of the domestic government’s external loan funds that were deposited into the BSP, as well as the BSP’s income from its investments abroad,” said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in a statement.
“These inflows were offset, however, by withdrawals of foreign currency made by the national government to pay its debt obligations in foreign currency during the month under review,” added the BSP.
However, the central bank said that the continued expansion in the country’s overall external position, the cumulative balance of payments surplus was less than the surplus of US $ 5.04 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.
The BSP said that the current overall balance of payments surplus was supported mainly by external loans from the national government, most of which were withdrawn from April to July, and the lower merchandise trade deficit.
“These positive results completely canceled out the impact of higher net outflows of foreign portfolio investment and lower net inflows of foreign direct investment, trade in services and personal remittances,” said the BSP.
According to the bank, the position of the base of the pyramid reflects a record level of final gross international reserves (GIR) of US $ 98.6 billion at the end of July 2020.
At this level, the BSP said that the GIR represents a large external liquidity buffer, which can cushion the domestic economy against external shocks.
“This is equivalent to 8.9 months of imports of goods and payments for services and primary income,” said the BSP.
In addition, the BSP said that it is also approximately 7.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.9 times based on residual maturity. Final product
