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. 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 BSP last week revised its BoP forecast for this year to a deficit of $1.4 billion from the previous forecast of $500 million. 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: Manila Times December 20, 2017 18:00 UTC