MANILA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' balance of payments (BOP), which accounts for the transactions of the country with the rest of the world, registered a deficit of 167 million U.S. dollars in July 2025, reversing the surplus of 62 million dollars recorded in July 2024, said the Philippine central bank.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Tuesday that the BOP deficit reflected the national government's drawdowns on its foreign currency deposits with the BSP to service external debt obligations.
From January to July 2025, the cumulative BOP deficit reached 5.8 billion dollars, compared with a surplus of 1.5 billion dollars in the same period last year.
The BSP said the gap was largely driven by the country's continued trade in goods deficit, partly offset by remittances from overseas Filipinos, foreign borrowings by the national government, and foreign portfolio investments.
The BOP position also mirrored the decline in the country's gross international reserves (GIR) to 105.4 billion dollars at the end of July from 106 billion dollars in June.
According to the BSP, the level of GIR remains an adequate external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.2 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
Moreover, it covers about 3.4 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity. ■
