MANILA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level settled at 101.3 billion U.S. dollars as of end-May from 101.8 billion dollars in April, according to 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 7.6 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The BSP added the May GIR level is about 5.9 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.2 times based on residual maturity.
"The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government's net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures, and downward adjustments in the value of the BSP's gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market," the BSP said. ■