MANILA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted 53 million in July 2023, lower than the 1.8 billion U.S. dollars BOP deficit recorded in July 2022, according to the Philippine central bank data released Friday night.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP deficit in July this year reflected net outflows arising mainly from the national government's payments of its foreign currency debt obligations.
Notwithstanding the deficit in July, the BSP said the country's cumulative BOP position registered a 2.2 billion U.S. dollars surplus in the first seven months of the year.
"(This level is) a reversal from the 4.9 billion U.S. dollars deficit recorded in the same period a year ago," the BSP added.
Based on preliminary data, the BSP said this development reflected mainly the improvement in the trade balance and the sustained inflows from personal remittances, the national government's net foreign borrowings, trade in services, and net foreign direct investments.
The BSP said the gross international reserves (GIR) level increased to 100 billion U.S. dollars as of end-July 2023 from 99.4 billion U.S. dollars as of end-June 2023.
According to the BSP, the latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.4 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The BSP added that the July GIR level is about 5.9 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity. ■