Philippines posts 82 mln USD BOP surplus in September

MANILA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' balance of payments (BOP), which accounts for the transactions of the country with the rest of the world, registered a surplus of 82 million U.S. dollars in September 2025, lower than the surplus of 3.5 billion dollars recorded in September 2024, the Philippine central bank said on Monday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the BOP surplus reflected the BSP's net income from its investments abroad and the national government's net foreign currency deposits with the BSP.

"This surplus helped narrow the year-to-date deficit, reducing it from 5.4 billion dollars in January-August 2025 to 5.3 billion dollars in January-September 2025," the BSP said.

Preliminary data indicate that the year-to-date BOP deficit was mainly due to the continued trade in goods deficit. "This was partly offset by the sustained net inflows from personal remittances from overseas Filipinos, trade in services, foreign direct and portfolio investments, and foreign borrowings by the national government," the BSP said.

According to the BSP, the BOP position mirrored the increase in the gross international reserves (GIR), which rose from 107.1 billion dollars as of end-August 2025 to 109.1 billion dollars as of end-September 2025.

The BSP said that the level of GIR remains an adequate external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.3 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

Moreover, it covers about 3.8 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity. Enditem