The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Friday said the country’s dollar stock rose to $43.2 billion in the first 10 months to October, $650 million more compared to the previous month.

The National Government’s recent $1 billion bond issuance and a $300-million loan from the Asian Development Bank were the main contributors to the increase in the preliminary gross international reserves (GIR).

In a statement, the BSP said aside from inflows from foreign currency deposits the revaluation gains on gold holdings arising from the higher price of gold in the international market, as well as income from the BSP’s investments abroad also boost GIR.

“These receipts were partly offset by outflows arising from the payment of maturing foreign exchange obligations of the NG and the BSP, as well as foreign currency withdrawals by authorized agent banks,” the BSP said.

As of end October, net international reserves, which includes revaluation of reserve assets and reserve-related liabilities, reached $43.1 billion, up by $1.2 billion from September’s $41.9 billion. NIR refers to the difference between the BSP’s GIR and total short-term liabilities.

The current GIR level is good enough to cover eight months of imports of goods and payments of services and income.

The BSP’s unofficial dollar reserves totaled $51.55 billion including foreign exchange swaps or forward positions worth $8.37 billion.

BSP officials project GIR will reach $42 billion this and $47 billion in 2010.

Of total GIR, $36.19 billion are foreign investments and $5.27 billion are gold reserves. Total special drawing rights in the International Monetary Fund amounts to $1.15 billion.

With the resurgence of global liquidity, the BSP, similar with other central banks in the region, have been accumulating foreign exchange to boost stock and liquidity buffer.

For 2009 and 2010, the BSP recently readjusted higher the balance of payments forecast to a surplus of up to $5 billion and $4 billion, respectively.

The emerging overseas Filipino remittances this year is higher-than-expected at $17.1 billion or four percent more compared to 2008 and for 2010, foreign exchange fund transfers will grow by six percent to $18.1 billion. BSP also raised its expectations for foreign direct investments to $1.5 billion while portfolio investments could reach $3 billion.