The Philippine central bank expects the country to again have a current account surplus in 2016 despite the risk of capital outflows after the Federal Reserve raised US interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The country is forecast to have a $5.7 billion surplus next year, central bank director Zeno Abenoja told reporters on Friday.
For this year, the central bank has revised down its projection for the current account surplus to $8.9 billion. Next year's balance of payment surplus is forecast to reach $2.2 billion, up slightly from 2015's projected $2.0 billion, which the central bank said is "illustrative of a resilient economy". The anticipated narrowing of the current-account surplus in 2016 "may be traced to our greater propensity to import," central bank deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said. "We see a lower current account position but this is matched by the improvement in financial accounts."