By Eileen A. Mencias

The gross international reserves of the Bangko Sentral hit an all-time high of $37.059 billion at the end of December.

Dollars, gold and other foreign currencies held by the central bank at the end of December were enough to pay for over five months worth of the country?s imports and close to thrice the country?s short-term debt.

The central bank in a statement attributed the increase in the international reserves to the proceeds from government?s foreign borrowings, foreign exchange operations and income from its investments abroad and higher gold prices in the world market.

The central bank?s gold holdings increased to $4.36 billion in December from $3.81 billion in November.

The central bank expets the balance of payments last year to yield a surplus of $500 million, down from the original forecast of $2 billion, because of the global financial meltdown triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September.

The BoP is a record of the country?s transactions with the rest of the world from imports and exports to debt, loan servicing and investments.

The current account, which represents the trade account plus the remittances from Filipinos working abroad, is estimated to have yielded a surplus of $2.2 billion last year, with exports growing by just 3 percent to $51 billion and imports rising 11 percent to $64.1 billion.

Remittances are expected to total $16.9 billion last year, up 13 percent from $12.7 billion in 2007.

The capital account is projected to post a surplus of $200 million, with foreign direct investments estimated at $1.3 billion and foreign portfolio investments resgistering a net outflow of $700 million. The central bank said portfolio investments registered a net outflow of $1.366 billion until the second week of December last year.

The central bank this year also expects a surplus in the BoP.