GIR declines to $15.981B in March

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) fell slightly from $16.145 billion as of end-February to $15.981 billion as of end-March 2003 due to the continued servicing of the national debt.

The GIR represents the country’s total holdings of foreign currencies, including special drawing rights (SDRs).

According to BSP Acting Governor Amando Tetangco, the current GIR level was comfortable and enough to cover 4.7 months worth of imported goods and payment of services and income.

Tetangco said that at $15.981 billion, the GIR was also equivalent to 2.6 times the country’s short-term debt based on original maturity or 1.3 times based on residual maturity.

Short-term debt based on residual maturity refers to principal payments of public and private sectors due within the next 12 months. This means that the current level of GIR is enough to meet these short-term obligations, indicating no shortage of dollars to cause default.

However, the March GIR reflected a slight decline which Tetangco attributed mainly to payments made by the BSP and the National Government to meet their service requirements.

The end-March GIR, however, did not include the $585 million term loan facility of the BSP which will be disbursed only this month.

According to the BSP, its net international reserves (BSP-NIR) as of end March 2003 before revaluation adjustments was at $12.294 billion compared to $12.917 billion a month ago.