MANILA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) declined to 103.4 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July from 104.8 billion dollars in June, the Philippine central bank said on Friday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, attributed the decline to its net foreign exchange operations, the national government's drawdowns on its foreign currency deposits with the BSP for external debt service, and the government's net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP.
These were partly offset by upward valuation adjustments in the BSP's gold holdings due to higher gold prices in the international market, as well as net income from its investments abroad, according to the BSP.
Despite the decline, the BSP said the end-July GIR level can cover up to 6.7 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, and about 3.6 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity. ■