MANILA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) position posted a 572 million U.S. dollar deficit in August, a reversal from the 1.04 billion dollar BOP surplus recorded a year earlier, the Philippine central bank said Monday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP deficit in August reflected outflows arising mainly from the national government's foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures.
The August BOP deficit brought the cumulative BOP level for January to August this year to a 5.5 billion dollar deficit, higher than the 253 million dollar deficit recorded in the same period last year.
According to the BSP, the gross international reserves level declined to 97.4 billion dollars as of end-August. ■