MANILA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' balance of payments (BOP), which accounts for the country's transactions with the rest of the world, registered a deficit of 225 million U.S. dollars in November this year, the Philippine central bank said on Friday.

For the January-November period, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP recorded an overall deficit of 4.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, the country's gross international reserves (GIR) increased to 111.3 billion U.S. dollars at the end of November.

"This level of reserves remains an adequate external liquidity buffer, equivalent to 7.4 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income," said the BSP, adding that it covers about 4 times the country's short-term external debt based on residual maturity. ■