Our external debt metrics have also improved as exhibited in the continued decline in the external debt to GDP ratio. These external transactions yielded positive results in terms of comfortable gross international reserves of $ billion as of July 2018, covering 7.4 months of imports of goods and payments of services and income. In the meantime, the peso continues to reflect day-to-day market conditions.
Over the last ten years, the peso has generally maintained its external price competitiveness against baskets of currencies of all trading partners and trading partners in advanced and developing economies. On the domestic front, the country’s inflation environment is confronted by a confluence of supply-side factors. This posed a challenge as monetary policy instruments more effectively address demand-side driven shocks.