MANILA, May 8 -- The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) settled at USD103.4 billion as of the end of April this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

In a statement released late Tuesday, the BSP said the GIR last month was slightly lower than the end-March GIR level of USD104.1 billion.

"The month-on-month decrease in the GIR level reflected mainly the National Government's (NG) net foreign currency withdrawals from its deposits with the BSP to settle its foreign currency debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures," the central bank said.

However, the latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.7 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and...