The Central Bank of the Philippines reported that the Philippines’ gross international reserves (GIR), based on preliminary data, declined to USD 103.0 billion as of end-January 2025 from USD 106.3 billion at end-2024. The reported GIR level was described as an adequate external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.3 months of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income and about 3.6 times short-term external debt on a residual-maturity basis. The month-on-month decrease was attributed mainly to the central bank’s net foreign exchange operations and the national government’s drawdown of deposits with the central bank to pay foreign currency debt obligations. Net international reserves (NIR) also fell by USD 3.2 billion to USD 103.0 billion from USD 106.2 billion in December 2024.