MANILA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) position posted a surplus of 448 million U.S. dollars in March 2020, lower than the 627 million U.S. dollars BOP surplus recorded in the same month last year, the Philippine central bank said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or the central bank of the Philippines said the BOP surplus in March 2020 reflected mainly the inflows arising from the BSP's foreign exchange operations as well as income from its investments abroad, and the national government's foreign currency deposits with the BSP.
The BSP added that the BOP surplus in March reduced the cumulative BOP deficit for the period January to March 2020 to 68 million U.S. dollars, from a deficit of 516 million U.S. dollars for the first two months of the year.
Notwithstanding, the BSP said the current year-to-date BOP level is a reversal from the 3.8 billion U.S. dollars BOP surplus recorded in the first quarter of 2019.
According to the BSP, the BOP position reflects the Philippine final gross international reserves (GIR) level of 88.86 billion U.S. dollars as of end-March 2020.
At this level, the BSP said the GIR represents an ample external liquidity buffer, which is equivalent to around 7.9 months' worth of imports of goods and services and payments of primary income.
The BSP further said it is also about 5.3 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity. Enditem
