By Eileen A. Mencias

The Bangko Sentral yesterday reported a $469-million surplus in the country?s balance of payments in February, mainly boosted by proceeds of foreign loans and investment income.

The February figure brought the BoP surplus in the first two months of the year to $2.2 billion, or up sharply from $1.3 billion year-on-year.

Bangko Sentral Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr., in a text message to reporters, attributed the February surplus to loans of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to the national government, investment income and foreign exchange operations of the central bank.

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

The Philippines registered the surplus despite a $221-million net outflow of foreign portfolio investments in February that sharply reduced the net hot money inflow to $22 million in the first two months of the year.

The central bank, meanwhile, lowered its end-February gross international reserves to $38.92 billion from an earlier estimated of $39.3 billion.

Revised central bank data showed that foreign investments in February amounted to $33.2 billion, down from the preliminary data of $33.6 billion. The amount of gold in the central bank?s holdings as well as the hard currencies it held remained unchanged.

The central bank has forecast a $700-million surplus in the BoP this year despite expectations of a drop in exports and a flat growth in remittances.

The central bank expects exports this year to contract by 6 percent to 8 percent and imports to fall by 8 percent to 10 percent.

It sees the current account, which covers the trade account and remittances, to yield a surplus of $2.9 billion this year.

The central bank expects imports to drop due partly to the fall in world oil prices to around $45 to $60 per barrel this year.

The government sees export growth picking up at 8 percent to 10 percent next year and imports rising 12 percent to 14 percent, with oil prices recovering to $55 to $75 a barrel.