THE country posted a higher balance of payments (BoP) in August, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Friday, rising to $88 million from $62 million in July and also rebounding from the $57-million deficit posted a year earlier. The surplus, the central bank said in a statement, was driven mainly by net income from the central bank's investments abroad. Year to date, the BoP position remained at a surplus to $1.6 billion but was lower than the $2.1 billion recorded in January-August 2023. This was mainly due to "narrowing trade in goods deficit alongside the continued net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services, net foreign direct investments, net foreign borrowings by the national government and net foreign portfolio investments," the BSP said. The country's gross international reserves (GIR), meanwhile, increased to $107.9 billion as of end-August from $106.7 billion a month earlier, the central bank also reported. The level was said to represent "a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.8 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income." "It is also about 6.0 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.8 times based on residual maturity," the BSP added. Sought for comment, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the BoP and GIR gains were partly due to growth in structural US dollar inflows, including remittances, business process outsourcing revenues, exports, foreign investments and tourism. "For the coming months, BoP data could still improve with the continued increase in the country's structural inflows as the economy recovers further," he added.