MANILA, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level rose to 99.7 billion U.S. dollars as of end-January, according to the preliminary data of the Philippine central bank released on Wednesday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said 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.
The GIR level is also about six times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and four times based on residual maturity, the central bank added.
The BSP said the month-on-month increase of the GIR level reflected mainly the national government's net foreign currency deposits with the central bank, the upward valuation adjustments in the value of BSP's gold holdings due to the rise in the price of gold in the international market, and net income from the BSP's investments abroad. ■