Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas : End-2012 GIR Level Rises to US$84.2 Billion

01.07.2013

Preliminary data showed that the country's gross international reserves (GIR) reached US$84.2 billion as of end-December 2012, higher by US$8.9 billion (or by 11.8 percent) than the end-December 2011 level of US$75.3 billion and by US$0.3 billion relative to the end-November 2012 level, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. announced today.   The end-December 2012 GIR level can cover 12.1 months worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.  It was also equivalent to 10.5 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.8 times based on residual maturity.

The appreciable year-on-year build-up in the reserves level was due mainly to inflows from the foreign exchange operations and investment income of the BSP, deposits by the National Government (NG) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corporation of proceeds from their bond issuances and other foreign borrowings.  These inflows were partially offset, however, by foreign exchange outflows for the payments by the NG and the BSP for their maturing foreign exchange obligations, foreign currency withdrawals by authorized agent banks (AABs) and revaluation losses on the BSP's foreign currency-denominated reserves.

Net international reserves (NIR), which include revaluation of reserve assets, rose to US$84.2 billion as of end-December 2012, higher by US$8.9 billion compared to the year-ago NIR level of US$75.3 billion.  NIR refers to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities.