MANILA --  The Philippines' gross international reserves fell to $104.6 billion at the end of April, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Thursday.

The BSP said this is equivalent to 7.2 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, the central bank said. It was also about 3.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on residual maturity. 

The central bank said the decline in gross in reserves reflects the government’s drawdowns on its foreign currency deposits with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to meet its external debt obligations and pay for its various expenditures, and (2) BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.

GIR refers to the country's reserves of US dollars and other foreign currencies that can be used for trade and settling obligations, as well as its reserves of precious metals, including gold.

The country's GIR climbed to $106.7 billion in February.