The Philippines ended September 2026 with US$99.5 billion in gross international reserves (GIR), maintaining a substantial foreign currency cushion to support import requirements, meet external debt obligations, and help the economy withstand external shocks.
Despite declining from the previous month, the country’s reserves remained sufficient to cover 6.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments for services and primary income, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The reserves could also cover about 3.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity, providing additional capacity to meet obligations falling due.
The September decline reflected several factors, including the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations and downward valuation adjustments linked mainly to changes in the prices of its gold holdings and foreign currency-denominated reserve assets. National government withdrawals from its foreign currency deposits with the BSP, including drawdowns for external debt servicing, also contributed to the decrease.
Meanwhile, sustained inflows from overseas Filipinos’ personal remittances, trade in services, foreign direct investments, and national government foreign borrowings continued to provide support to the country’s external accounts. These inflows partly offset pressures from the trade in goods deficit and net outflows from foreign portfolio investments.
The overall balance of payments (BOP), which measures the country’s transactions with the rest of the world, recorded a US$3.1-billion deficit in September. This brought the cumulative deficit for January to September 2026 to US$9.1 billion, compared with US$5.3 billion during the same period last year.
While the wider BOP deficit highlights continuing pressures on the external accounts, the country retains a sizeable reserve buffer. Its import coverage and capacity to meet short-term external debt obligations remain key sources of financial resilience.
