Renminbi now part of BSP’s FX reserves

Chinese currency renminbi (RMB) has been in­cluded among the country’s currency reserves in line with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) inclusion of it in the basket of reserve notes, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) said.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the RMB was included in the BSP’s official re­serves last Oct. 13, 15 days after it became an official part of the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDR).

To date, the central bank’s foreign reserves include mainly the US dollar, SDR and gold.

“The BSP may hold RMB as part of its Gross International Reserves (GIR) to ensure that the said currency is available to the banking system when needed,” Tetangco said.

He said the rising economic and financial importance of China and the expected wider use of the RMB are the other factors that made the BSP’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) decide to make the Chinese currency part of the central bank’s foreign reserves.

“The MB also took into consideration the country’s increasing economic linkages with China,” he said.

Citing Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, Tetangco said the Philippines’ export to China jumped by 7.9 percent to $6.2 billion in 2015 from $5.7 billion in 2010.

As of last July, China was the fourth larg­est destination of Philippine exports with a 10.2 percent share and exports volume amounting to $3.2 billion.