The Philippines recorded a balance of payments (BOP) deficit of $67 million in November, reversing the previous month's $1.19 billion surplus, mainly due to debt servicing, the central bank said on Monday. It was only the second deficit this year after a September shortfall of $95 million.
For the first 11 months of the year, the Philippines had a balance of payments surplus of $7.782 billion, fuelled by record remittances from around 8 million Filipinos, or 10 percent of the population, who work overseas.
Remittance inflows in the first 10 months of the year climbed 15 percent to $11.865 billion and the central bank expects remittances through formal channels to hit a record $14.3 billion this year, up around 12 percent from last year.
The central bank expects the BOP surplus to hit $8-8.5 billion this year, the highest since 1999 when the current definition of the BOP began being used and more than double last year's surplus of $3.77 billion.
But the central bank said at the weekend it expected next year's surplus to shrink to between $3 billion and $3.5 billion as high prices for oil and other imported commodities and slower demand from its main trading partner, the United States, were likely to widen its trade deficit.