MANILA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level rose to 100.2 billion U.S. dollars as of end-March from 98.2 billion dollars in February, according to the preliminary data released by the Philippine central bank on Wednesday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.5 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The BSP added that the March GIR level is about six times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual maturity.
It said the month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government's net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, the upward revaluation of the BSP's gold holdings due to the rise in the price of gold in the international market, and net income from the BSP's investments abroad. ■