MANILA -- The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) hit a new record of $48.4 billion in June on back of income from investment overseas and foreign exchange operations, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Wednesday.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the end of June preliminary GIR level is $738 million higher than the $47.65 billion in the previous month.

The GIR measures the total foreign exchange inflows to the country in a given month or year.

The BSP said the current GIR level is enough to cover nine months of imports of goods and payments of services and income.

It is also equivalent to 9.3 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4.8 times based on residual maturity.

(Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)