The overall balance of payments (BOP) position posted a surplus of $1.2 billion in March, slightly lower than the $1.3 billion BOP surplus recorded in March 2023.

The BOP surplus in March reflected inflows arising mainly from the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad.

Meanwhile, the BOP surplus in March brought the current year-to-date BOP level to $238 million surplus, lower than the $3.5 billion surplus recorded in January-March 2023.

Based on preliminary data, this cumulative BOP surplus reflected mainly the improvement in the balance of trade alongside the net inflows from personal remittances, net foreign borrowings by the NG, foreign direct investments, and foreign portfolio investments.

The BOP position reflects an increase in the final gross international reserves (GIR) level to $104.1 billion as of end-March from $102.0 billion as of end-February.

The latest 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.

It is also about 5.9 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity. BSP