Philippines buys Australian dollars (and production)

From the AFR:

The finance secretary of the Philippines has confirmed his central bank is buying Australian dollars, despite Reserve Bank of Australia documents released this week which said the island nation was not a buyer.

“The Australian dollar is part of it and an increasing part of it,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima toldThe Australian Financial Review on a visit to Sydney, in a reference to the central bank’s foreign reserves.

At the end of 2011, 3.1 per cent of Filipino foreign exchange reserves were held in Australian dollars, up from 1 per cent in 2005.

If that level were maintained, the Filipino central bank could now own up to $US2.2 billion of its $US70 billion in non-gold reserves in Australian dollars.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.