Philippine foreign reserves reach $39 bln in Feb.

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

MANILA, March 6 (Chinese media) -- Philippine gross international reserves (GIR)

rose to 39.3 billion U.S. dollars in February 2009, bolstered by foreign

exchange inflows and multilateral loans, the Philippine central bank said

Friday.

The foreign reserves figure in February was up 100 million U.S. dollars

from the January figure, the central bank said.

The February GIR can cover 5.9 months of imports of goods and payments of

services and income and equivalent to 4.7 times the country's short-term

external debt based on original maturity and 2.7 times based on residual

maturity.

In a statement, Philippine central bank governor Amando Tetangco said loan

proceeds from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, inflows from the

central bank's net foreign exchange operations increased the February GIR level.

He added the higher international gold prices also increased the value of

central bank's gold reserves.

Gold prices surged in February with the gold futures traded in the New York

Mercantile Exchange hitting over 1,000 U.S. dollars an ounce. The global

economic crisis pushed investors to purchase gold -- a traditional safe-haven

asset.

Meanwhile, the central bank said the Net International reserves (NIR),

including revaluation of reserve assets and reserve-related liabilities rose to

38.3 billion U.S. dollars in February, from 37.7 billion U.S. dollars in

January. The NIR is the difference between the central bank's GIR and total

short-term liabilities.