GIR LEVEL HITS $106.9 BILLION

The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) level, based on preliminary data, settled at US$106.98 billion as of end-May 2021 from the end-April 2021 GIR level of US$107.71 billion.

The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 12.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. Also, the GIR level is about 7.4 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.1 times based on residual maturity 2.3.

The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected outflows mainly from the foreign currency withdrawals of the National Government (NG) from its deposits with the BSP to pay its foreign currency debt obligations and various expenditures.

These outflows were partly offset, however, by the inflows from the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad, and an upward adjustment in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market.

Similarly, the net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, decreased by US$0.73 billion to US$106.96 billion as of end-May 2021 from the end-April 2021 level of US$107.69 billion.

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