Gross international reserves, based on preliminary data, rose to $96 billion as of end-December from the end-November level of $95.1 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.

The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

Moreover, it is also about 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.9 times based on residual maturity.

The month-on-month increase in the gross international reserves level reflected mainly the BSP net foreign exchange operations, the upward valuation adjustments in the value of BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market, and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad.

Similarly, the net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP’s reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), increased by $0.9 billion to $96.0 billion as of end-December from the end-November level of $95.1 billion. BSP