MANILA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a deficit of 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in April 2025, much higher than the deficit of 639 million dollars recorded in April 2024, the country's central bank said Monday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the latest BOP deficit reflected the national government's drawdowns on its foreign currency deposits with the BSP to meet its external debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures, and the BSP's net foreign exchange operations.
This deficit brought the cumulative BOP level to the deficit of 5.5 billion dollars, higher than the deficit of 401 million dollars recorded from January to April 2024, the BSP said.
Based on preliminary data, this year-to-date BOP deficit is mainly reflected in the widening trade deficit in goods.
"This decline was partly muted, however, by the continued net inflows from personal remittances from overseas Filipinos and foreign borrowings by the national government," said the bank.
The BSP stated that the BOP position mirrored the decrease in the final gross international reserves (GIR) to 105.3 billion dollars as of end-April 2025, down from 106.7 billion dollars as of end-March 2025.
It added that the latest GIR level provides a robust external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.3 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. ■