MANILA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level settled at 86.42 billion U.S. dollars as of end-January 2020 from the end-December 2019 GIR level of 87.84 billion U.S. dollars, the Philippine central bank said on Friday.

Over 60 containers of waste were loaded onto a ship at Subic Bay, the Philippines, May 30, 2019. (Photo: CGTN)

At this level, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the GIR can cover 7.6 months' worth of imports of goods and services and payments of primary income.

It is also equivalent to 5.3 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 4 times based on residual maturity, the BSP added.

The BSP further said that the month-on-month decline in the GIR level reflected outflows arising from the national government's foreign exchange withdrawal, which was used mainly to pay its foreign exchange obligations.

However, the BSP said the decline was partially tempered by the BSP's net foreign exchange purchases from its foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad.