Data from the BSP showed that the country's foreign-exchange surplus at end-May went up by 44.7 percent to $1.809 billion from $1.302 billion last year.
In May however, the surplus of $75 million was $63 million lower than last year's $138 million.
The BOP summarizes the country's economic transactions with the rest of the world. A surplus means the country earned more dollars than it paid for overseas transactions.
The BSP earlier reported that the country suffered net outflows of $641 million worth of foreign portfolio investments in May, a reversal of the net inflows of $1.1 billion in April and $106 million in May of last year.
The BSP forecast the country's external payments position to moderate to $3 billion by yearend on expectations of a 12 percent year-on-year increase in imports.
Sustained BOP surpluses help build up the country's gross international reserves (GIR), an ample supply of which helps prop up the peso and keeps domestic inflation at bay.
The country's dollar reserves slipped to $82.9 billion last month from $83.2 billion in April because of the drop in the price of gold in the international market, as well as payment of the country's foreign-currency debts.
source: interaksyon.com
