THE country’s balance of payments (BoP) posted a surplus of $80 million last month — its lowest in nine months — keeping the year-to-date tally above $4 billion, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). While the June figure boosted the first-semester surplus to $4.10 billion, it remains lower than the $4.78-billion surplus in the same period a year ago. Net inflows of FDI in the four months ending April hit $1.98 billion, 32.1 percent smaller than the year-ago amount. The final GIR is equivalent to 8.5 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income. It is also about 7.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.8 times based on residual maturity.

Source: Manila Times July 30, 2020 18:33 UTC