Forex reserves hit record high in November

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s foreign reserves hit a fresh record high of $84.105 billion in November, surpassing the revised $83-billion forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced just this week.

The latest gross international reserves (GIR) level is enough to cover 12.2 months worth of imports, preliminary data showed. It is also good for 12 times worth of short-term external debt based on original maturity and 6.8 times on residual maturity.

GIR, which serves as buffer funds in times of external shocks, was up from $81.747 billion by end-October, BSP data showed. Last Tuesday, BSP hiked its GIR outlook for the year from the original $77.5 to $78 billion.

Broken down, the highest increase was recorded on BSP’s foreign investments abroad, which rose 3.24 percent month-on-month to $70.845 billion.

This was followed by its gold holdings amounting to $10.636 billion for the first 11 months, up 1.11 percent from $10.519 billion as of October.

BSP Deputy Governor Juan de Zuñiga, in a statement, classified this as “revaluation gains” as gold prices in the world market rose.

Foreign exchange assets, on the other hand, inched up 0.8 percent to $803.41 million due to “foreign currency deposits by the government and authorized agent banks.” Deposits included proceeds from a program loan from the Asian Development Bank worth $350 million.  

BSP’s foreign exchange operations also contributed to the rise as the institution bought more dollars to temper the peso’s appreciation. The central bank has kept scope to intervene in the foreign exchange market to avoid sharp swings in the peso’s value.

A strong peso, which opened at 40.96 to a dollar yesterday, trims the value of dollar export earnings and remittances from overseas Filipinos. The local currency has appreciated by roughly seven percent this year.

GIR inflows, De Zuñiga said, were offset by outflows as a result of payments made by the Aquino administration to its maturing external obligations.

Net international reserves – or GIR minus short-term liabilities – likewise rose to $84.1 billion as of November, he said.