PH sold 24.9 tonnes of gold in H1 2024; part of strategy, says BSP

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday defended the sale of its gold holdings in the first half of the year, saying this is part of its “active management strategy” of the country’s gold reserves.

“The BSP took advantage of the higher prices of gold in the market and generated additional income without compromising the primary objectives for holding gold, which are insurance and safety,” the central bank said in an emailed statement.

The statement was released after BestBrokers, an online aggregator, found that the Philippine central bank sold the most gold among countries that reported activities to the World Gold Council (WGC) in the first half of the year.

BestBrokers said the Philippines sold 24.95 tonnes in January to June, cutting down the country’s reserves by 15.69% to 134.06 tonnes. This compares to the 1.33 tonnes added to the reserves in the previous year.

This was followed by Thailand which sold 9.64 tonnes or down by 3.95%, Uzbekistan which sold 6.22 tonnes or down by 1.67%, Mongolia which sold 1.33 tonnes or down by 22.06%, and Singapore which sold by 1.18 tonnes or down by 0.51%.

Latest data available from the WGC show that the Philippines was listed as the 31st country in terms of gold holdings with 132.7 tonnes as of June 2024, equivalent to 9.8% of reserves.

Gold reserves are part of the country’s gross international reserves (GIR), or the measure of the ability to settle import payments and service foreign debt.

The central bank reported the end-August GIR level at $106.9 billion, up from $106.73 billion in July, and $99.567 billion as of end-August 2023.

This is equivalent to about 6.0 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity, and 3.8 times based on residual maturity.

“The GIR level provides adequate external liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.8 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said. — BM, GMA Integrated News