MANILA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level rose by 350 million U.S. dollars to 98.95 billion U.S. dollars as of end-August from the end-July level of 98.6 billion U.S. dollars, the Philippine central bank has said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Wednesday the month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected inflows mainly from the BSP's foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad.

However, the BSP added that these inflows were partly offset by the foreign currency withdrawals made by the national government to pay its foreign currency debt obligations and revaluation losses from the BSP's gold holdings resulting from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market.

The BSP said the end-August GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer, which can cushion the domestic economy against external shocks.

"This buffer is equivalent to nine months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. Moreover, it is also about 7.6 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.8 times based on residual maturity," the BSP added.

Similarly, the BSP said the net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities, increased by 354 million U.S. dollars to 98.95 billion U.S. dollars as of end-August from the end-July level of 98.59 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem

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