The Philippine central bank said Wednesday it attained record gross international reserves in August of $85.895 billion.

Last July, reserves were reported at $85.51 billion, which is the old record.

Central bank governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the increase was mainly due to the national government's net foreign currency deposits and the bank’s foreign exchange operations and income from investments abroad.

"These were partially offset by payments made by the national government for its maturing foreign exchange obligations and revaluation adjustments on the central bank’s gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market," he said.

The August reserves level can cover 10.5 months' worth of imports of food and payments of services and income, he said.

Meanwhile, stocks continued declining, with the main Philippine Stock Exchange index closing 1.3 percent to 7,619.10. DMS