Philippines' BOP swings back to a deficit in November

[MANILA] The latest balance of payments (BOP) figure brought the BOP deficit in the 11 months to November to US$3.72 billion, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed.

The central bank expects the country to end the year with a balance of payments deficit of US$3.4 billion, as foreign investors shift funds overseas, although it raised its forecast for this year's current account surplus to US$6.6 billion, above the previous estimate of US$6 billion.

Last year, the country had a BOP surplus of US$5.1 billion and a current account surplus of US$9.4 billion.

The central bank has also lowered its estimate for 2014 foreign reserves to US$79 billion from US$85.3 billion.

The central bank expects cash remittances from overseas Filipinos to rise 5 per cent this year after growth of 6.4 per cent in 2013 when they hit a record US$22.97 billion.

REUTERS