By Eileen A. Mencias

The Bangko Sentral said the Philippines will likely post a huge surplus in its balance of payments position this month after registering a surprising deficit of $287 million in December last year.

?We expect a huge surplus in January as the national government gets the loan proceeds that should have materialized in December. It?s going to be a sharp reversal,? Bangko Sentral Deputy Gov. Diwa Guinigundo told reporters.

The BoP is a record of the country?s transactions with the rest of the world. A surplus means the economy generated more foreign exchange from remittances, loans and exports than it paid for imports and debt servicing.

The central bank said the BoP yielded a surplus of just $88 million in 2008, much lower than $500 million it expected after proceeds from foreign loans did not come in.

The national government signed a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank on Dec. 18 but failed to receive the proceeds because of the long holidays. It expects to get the loans proceeds this month.

The central bank said the BoP swung to a deficit of $287 million in December, trimming the full-year surplus to $88 million.

Guinigundo said proceeds from the national government?s $1.5-billion global bond issue would also boost the country?s BoP position this month significantly. The proceeds from the bond issue are more than enough to pay for $202 million in maturing obligations in December and January.

Guinigundo said the government received the proceeds of $300 million from the Judicial Sector Reform Loan from the Asian Development Bank in January.

State-owned National Transmission Corp. also received $987.5 million from National Grid Corp. of the Philippines this month, representing the upfront payment for the 25-year concession to operate the country?s transmission highway. National Grid submitted the highest bid $3.95 billion to run TransCo?s concession. The State Grid of China was among the members of National Grid consortium.

The central bank is finalizing its projections on the BoP this year because of the uncertainty in the global economy. It, however, expects remittances from migrant Filipino workers to grow 6 percent to 9 percent.

Remittances from Filipinos working abroad still grew in November last year despite the global slowdown.

Remittances in November amounted to $1.31 billion, up 10.5 percent year-on-year, bringing the year-to date figure to $15.02 billion, up 15.1 percent on year.

The central bank said ?the steady stream of remittances from overseas Filipinos continues to provide the economy with much-needed foreign exchange liquidity in the midst of a challenging external environment.?