The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a surplus of 642 million U.S. dollars in December 2023, higher than the 612 million dollars recorded in the same month 2022, the country's central bank said Friday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP surplus in December 2023 reflected inflows arising mainly from the national government's net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, net income from the BSP's investments abroad, and the BSP's net foreign exchange operations.

"The BOP surplus in December brought the full-year 2023 BOP level to 3.7 billion dollars surplus, a reversal from the 7.3 billion dollars deficit recorded in the same period a year ago," the BSP said.

Based on preliminary data, the BSP said this development reflected mainly the improvement in the balance of trade alongside the higher net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services, and foreign borrowings by the national government.

"Net inflows from foreign direct investments contributed to the surplus, albeit lower during the period," said the central bank.

The BSP said the gross international reserves (GIR) level increased to 103.8 billion dollars as of the end of December 2023 from 102.7 billion dollars in November 2023.

It added the December GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.8 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

The BSP added the December GIR level is about 6 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.