The overall balance of payments (BOP) position posted a surplus of $3.1 billion in January, a reversal from the $102 million BOP deficit recorded in the same month last year.

The BOP surplus in January reflected inflows arising mainly from the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which include proceeds from its issuance of Republic of the Philippines Global Bonds, and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad.

The BOP position reflects an increase in the final gross international reserves (GIR) level to $100.7 billion as of end-January 2023 from $96.1 billion as of end-December 2022.

The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.6 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. Moreover, it is also about 6.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.1 times based on residual maturity. BSP