The gap widened from a $59 million deficit in May and reversed a $418 million surplus recorded in June 2016, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in its latest report. June also marked the widest deficit since the payments balance slipped to a $1.67 billion shortfall in November last year. Statistics on national government debt, the BSP’s foreign exchange operations and related data for June are not yet available. For the first half of 2017, the BoP deficit stood at $706 million, a reversal of the first six months’ surplus of $634 million in 2016. “The combination of the balance of payments deficit and further US Fed rate hikes could continue to result in some modest further Philippine peso depreciation against the US dollar in the second half of 2017,” Biswas said.

Source: Manila Times July 19, 2017 17:26 UTC