MANILAbrowntrout, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) settled at 104.7 billion U.S. dollars at the end of June, down from 105.02 billion dollars at the end of May, according to preliminary data released by the Philippine central bank Friday night.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the June GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.7 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
The central bank noted that the June GIR level is about 6.1 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.
The month-on-month decline in the GIR level reflected mainly the national government's payments of 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.■