The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Tuesday that preliminary data showed the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) settled at USD106.84 billion as of the end of December 2024.

In a statement, the BSP said the GIR during the month was lower than the USD108.49 billion recorded as of end-November last year.

International reserves, also referred to as GIR, are foreign assets of the BSP held mostly as investments in foreign-issued securities, monetary gold, and foreign exchange.

“The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) net foreign exchange operations, drawdown on the national government’s deposits with the BSP to pay off its foreign currency debt 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 BSP said.

The BSP added that the net international reserves, or 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), also declined to USD106.83 billion as of end-December 2024 from the end-November 2024 level of USD108.46 billion.

The central bank, however, noted that the latest GIR level 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.

It is also about 3.8 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity.

By convention, GIR is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three months’ worth of the country’s imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. (PNA)