Philippines records $1.36B balance of payments deficit in January

The Philippine economy recorded a balance of payments (BoP) deficit of $1.36 billion in January 2020, reversing from a surplus of $2.7 billion in the same month last year.

This marks the first monthly net outflow of hard currency since June 2019.

The BoP deficit was mainly due to national government foreign currency withdrawals for debt obligations and net outflows in foreign portfolio investments.

These outflows were partially offset by inflows from the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations and income from its overseas investments.