MANILA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) settled at 106.84 billion U.S. dollars at the end of December 2024 from 108.49 billion dollars at the end of November 2024, the Philippine central bank said Tuesday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the GIR level in December 2024 represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.5 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services, and primary income.
The central bank added that the latest GIR level is about 3.8 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity.
"The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the BSP's net foreign exchange operations, drawdown on national government's deposits with the BSP to pay off its foreign currency obligations, and downward valuation adjustments in the BSP's gold holdings due to the decrease in the price of gold in the international market," the central bank said. ■
