GIR shrinks on dip in forex, investment T By Cai U. Ordinario
HE decline in foreign exchange and investment led to the contraction of the country’s Gross International Reserves (GIR) in the period ending September 2025. The data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed the GIR reached $108.8 billion as of the end of September 2025, a 3.46-percent decline from the $112.7 billion recorded in the same period last year. “BSP Governor Remolona recently signaled that the Philippine central bank/BSP intervened in the foreign exchange market in recent weeks, it was in small amounts, some day-to-day inter-
FLOOD OF ACCUSATIONS Sen. Jinggoy Estrada on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, filed a perjury complaint against former DPWH Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office. Hernandez had previously implicated Estrada in alleged irregularities in government flood control projects. NONOY LACZA
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vention just to limit the volatility,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said. “Thus, relatively high GIR would help fundamentally support/protect the peso exchange rate vs. any speculative attacks and would also fundamentally provide the US dollar supply/ammunition for any intervention in the local foreign exchange market, if necessary,” he added. The data showed that while there was a 50.88-percent increase in the value of gold reserves, this was not enough to boost the country’s GIR. BSP said gold reserves amounted to $16.38 billion as of the end of September 2025, higher than
the $10.86 billion posted as of the end of September 2024. However, the country’s foreign investments amounted to only $87.24 billion as of the end of September 2025. This was an 8.36-percent decline from the $95.2 billion posted in the same period of 2024. When it comes to foreign exchange, BSP data showed a 75.26-percent contraction to $505.1 million as of September 2025, from the $2.04 billion as of September 2024. “GIR are made up of foreign-denominated securities, foreign exchange, and other assets including gold. GIR help a country finance its imports and foreign debt obligations, stabilize its currency, and
provide a buffer against external economic shocks,” BSP said. Nonetheless, BSP said the latest GIR level remained the highest since the period ending October 2024, when the reserves reached $111.08 billion. Compared to the period ending August 2025, BSP said the GIR increased 1.59 percent from the $107.1 billion. “The latest GIR level provides a robust external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said. The BSP said the GIR is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three-months’ worth of the See “GIR,” A2
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Wednesday, October 8, 2025 Vol. 20 No. 360
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 24 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
NEFFICIENCIES such as corruption, poor planning, and delays are compounding the adverse impact of natural disasters on consumer prices, local economists said, following the release of the country’s latest inflation data on Tuesday. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that inflation accelerated to 1.7 percent in September 2025. This is faster than the 1.5 percent posted in August 2025 but was slower than the 1.9 percent recorded in September 2024. Unionbank Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion told BusinessMirror that these inefficiencies disrupt supply chains, leading to higher input costs. “When floods or typhoons hit, these inefficiencies amplify logistical bottlenecks, leading to
higher transport and distribution costs, which then push up consumer prices, especially for food and essentials,” Asuncion told this newspaper. “If the only bridge access, for example, to a certain municipality or city, fails because of corruption resulting [from] substandard construction, we immediately observe prices of food and essentials rise and even cause markets to fail,” he added. Further, Asuncion said the repair and reconstruction of projects that See “1.7%,” A2
PINOYS TURNING AWAY FROM TRADITIONAL FORMS OF MEDIA By Erwin James T. Gianan
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ILIPINOS are increasingly turning away from traditional forms of mass media, even radio, which is one of the most popular forms of media in both urban and rural areas, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The 2024 run of the Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) showed Filipinos’ exposure to radio fell sharply to just 52.9 percent, more than 20 percentage points less than the 75.2 percent recorded in 2019. Printed newspapers, however, saw the steepest drop in exposure among all platform types at a staggering 30 percent, less than half of what was recorded in 2019 at 63.3 percent. The data showed Television, which maintained the biggest exposure rate among the audiovisual platforms at 82.3 percent,
posted a lower exposure rate than the 96 percent in 2019 FLEMMS. The FLEMMS showed online platforms through the newest additions to the FLEMMS, video and music streaming, are growing in exposure. Video streaming recorded a 66.5-percent exposure while music streaming posted a 63.5-percent exposure rate. Meanwhile, the National Capital Region (NCR) had the highest exposure rate to television at 88 percent, while the Mimaropa region had the lowest, with the same platform at 75.3 percent. Another recent addition, online or digital newspapers, logged the highest exposure rate for all reading platforms at 52.1 percent. This was followed by printed magazines and printed posters, which had exposure rates of 50.2 percent and 49.2 percent, respectively. This time, Central Visayas See “Pinoys,” A12
WHITE AGAINST WRONG Students and employees of Saint Louis University (SLU) in Baguio City took to the streets in white, marching from the Baguio Convention Center to the Baguio Cathedral to denounce corruption and pray for integrity in governance. The “Wear White Tuesday” movement saw the SLU community wearing white clothes and ribbons as symbols of honesty and solidarity in the fight against graft. The march comes amid renewed public outrage over alleged “ghost projects” and irregularities in multibillion-peso flood control programs and other government infrastructure initiatives. MAU VICTA
Aug factory output rebounds, grows 1.4% T
HE country’s factory output in August rebounded on the back of a double-digit growth in the manufacture of food products, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Based on the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI), the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) grew 1.4 percent in August 2025. This brought year-todate VoPI growth to 0.5 percent. The rebound in August is from the contraction of 1.8 percent in July 2025. Compared to last year, the latest figure was also faster than the 1.3-percent growth posted in August 2024. In August, PSA said, the manufacture of food products grew 20.2 percent, significantly faster than
the 11.4 percent recorded in July 2025 and 0.4 percent posted in August 2024. “The acceleration in the annual growth rate of VoPI for manufacture of food products in August 2025 was brought about by the uptrend in the annual growth rates of VoPI for 6 out of 8 industry groups,” PSA said. The data showed this was led by the faster growth in the manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats at 35.4 percent in August 2025, from 6.5 percent in the previous month. The PSA said, however, there was a slower year-on-year growth rate in the VoPI for processing and preserving of meat at 12.7 percent during the month from 18.1 per-
cent in July 2025. The manufacture of grain mill products, starches and starch products also posted a steeper decline of 9 percent in August 2025 from 6.5 percent in the previous month. Meanwhile, the data also showed the manufacture of basic metals contributed to the recovery of the VoPI with a slower decline of 9.6 percent August 2025. This was an improvement compared to the decline of 26.8 percent recorded in July 2025 and the 17.9-percent contraction posted in August 2024. PSA also said a contributor to the rebound is the manufacture of machinery and equipment except electrical, with an annual growth of 6.7 percent during the month.
The data showed this manufacturing industry division recorded a decline of 3.1 percent in July 2025. However, the industry division posted faster growth of 19.3 percent in August 2024. “Of the remaining 19 industry divisions, nine posted annual increments in August 2025. Meanwhile, 10 industry divisions exhibited annual decreases in their VoPI for manufacturing during the period,” PSA said. Meanwhile, based on responding establishments, the average capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing section in August 2025 was reported at 77.3 percent. The average capacity utilization rate was 77.2 percent in July 2025, See “Aug,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 58.1590 n JAPAN 0.3870 n UK 78.4041 n HK 7.4727 n CHINA 8.1663 n SINGAPORE 45.0356 n AUSTRALIA 38.4605 n EU 68.1100 n KOREA 0.0412 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.5062 Source: BSP (October 7, 2025)