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Philippines: Balance of payments deficit narrows in Nov
The country’s November balance of payments (BoP) position was a deficit of $44 million, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported late on Tuesday, smaller than the $368-million and $1.67-billion shortfalls recorded in October and a year earlier.
“Outflows in November 2017 stemmed mainly from payments made by the national government for its maturing foreign exchange obligations during the month in review,” the central bank said in a statement, adding that these were partially offset by government net foreign currency deposits and income from the BSP’s investments abroad.
The November result brought the year-to-date BoP position to a $1.78-billion deficit, wider than the $206 million recorded in the same period last year.
“The higher cumulative BoP deficit for January to November 2017 was brought about largely by the big reversal in foreign portfolio investments, from [a]$1.3 billion net inflow to [a]$770 million net outflow for the first 10 months of the year,” the central bank said.
The BSP last week revised its BoP forecast for this year to a deficit of $1.4 billion from the previous forecast of $500 million.
Key considerations behind the projection are an expected pickup in global growth, a modest recovery in global trade, measured US monetary policy normalization, a brighter outlook for emerging market capital flows, moderate increases in commodity prices, and robust domestic growth.
IHS Markit chief economist Rajiv Biswas said the full year deficit could even top the Bangko Sentral’s revised forecast.
“With domestic demand expected to grow strongly in 2018 and likely to boost imports of capital goods, the BoP deficit could widen further in 2018, continuing to be a negative factor for the near-term Philippine peso outlook,” he added.
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/balance-payments-deficit-narrows-nov/369866/