By Eileen A. Mencias

The gross international reserves of the Bangko Sentral surged to an all-time high of $39.56 billion at the end of January, boosted by proceeds from the privatization of National Transmission Corp. and government’s overseas borrowing.

The reserves, consisting dollars, gold and foreign currency holdings, rose $2 billion from $37.55 billion at the end of December last year. They are enough to pay for close to six times the country’s imports and thrice its maturing short-term debt.

The central bank reported a $1.9-billion increase in foreign investments and a $210-million gain in gold holdings from December levels.

With over $2 billion in dollar inflows, the central bank said the balance of payments surplus in January would exceed $500 million. The BoP is a record of the country’s transactions with the rest of the world.

The national government raised $1.5 billion from a global bond issue in January, which significantly beefed up the reserves. The government also received proceeds from a $300-million loan of the Asian Development Bank for a judicial reform program in January. The Philippines signed the loan agreement in December but received the proceeds only in January because of the long holidays.

The government also received $987.5 million in proceeds from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, representing the upfront payment for its 25-year concession contract.

National Grid won the contract to operate the country’s power transmission network in late 2007 when it submitted the highest bid of $3.95 billion.

The inflows more than offset the $596.37 million worth of obligations that matured in January. Maturing obligations in February and March are expected to hit a combined $2.4 billion.

The central bank in December reported a $287-million deficit in the balance of payments to bring down the full- year 2008 surplus to just $88 million. The long holidays delayed the remittance of the loan and privatization proceeds.

A deficit in the BoP means the country did not generate enough foreign exchange to pay for its imports and debt servicing.

The central bank is still finalizing its projections on the BoP this year because of the uncertainty in the global economy. The International Monetary Fund forecasts a balanced BoP this year.