Philippines end-July reserves nearly $40 bln-c.bank

* End-July forex reserves at record $39.99 bln

* Forex reserves can cover 6.9 mths worth of imports-c.bank

* Equal to 6.3 times short-term debt at original maturity

MANILA, Aug 7 - The Philippine central bank released preliminary data on end-July gross international reserves (GIR):

KEY DATA*

July June May April March Feb GIR (in $ bln) 39.99 39.490 39.589 39.316 39.041 38.925

*NOTE: Data is preliminary and is usually updated around two weeks later.

KEY POINTS

* The central bank expects to end 2009 with gross international reserves of $39 billion due to debt payments, from $37.55 billion in 2008.

* The Philippines' forex reserves is at a record high but still ranks among the countries with the lowest reserves level in the region, outpacing only Pakistan and Bangladesh. [ID:nSP448586]

* Inflows of remittances from overseas Filipinos help boost the country's foreign exchange reserves. The Philippines is the fourth largest recipient of remittances in the world.

LINKS

For details, see the central bank website www.gov.ph.