The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) level, based on preliminary data, rose by US$30.5 million to US$93.32 billion as of end-June 2020 from the end-May 2020 level of US$93.29 billion.
The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected inflows mainly from the National Government’s foreign currency deposits with the BSP.
These inflows were offset, however, by the foreign currency withdrawals made by the National Government to pay its foreign currency debt obligations.
The end-June 2020 GIR level represents an ample external liquidity buffer, which is equivalent to 8.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
Moreover, it is also about 7.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.8 times based on residual maturity.
Similarly, the net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities, increased by US$50.2 million to US$93.32 billion as of end-June 2020 from the end-May 2020 level of US$93.27 billion
