A report released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on the 7th shows that as of April, the Philippines' gross international reserves climbed to a record high of US$47.03 billion, surpassing the revised figure of US$45.479 billion in March.
The aforementioned foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to cover 9.3 months' worth of import requirements and are equivalent to 11.8 times the country's short-term external debt and 5.3 times its medium- to long-term external debt.
The central bank pointed out that the growth in foreign exchange reserves mainly stems from proceeds from the US$500 million multi-currency retail bond issuance, gains from the central bank's foreign exchange operations and overseas investments, as well as revaluation gains on its gold holdings. The government expects foreign exchange reserves to reach a record US$48 billion to US$49 billion this year, higher than the earlier projection of US$47 billion to US$48 billion.
The inflow of overseas remittances will also help increase the Philippines' foreign exchange reserves. This year, due to the increasing demand for Filipino workers abroad, remittances are expected to grow by 8%, higher than the initially projected 6%.
