MANILA, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' foreign reserves fell to 35.7 billion U.S. dollars at the end of October, down by 1.0 billion dollars compared to previous month's level, the country's central bank BSP said on Friday.

    The decrease was mainly due to the fall of gold price, which dragged down the value of the country's gold holdings, and payments of maturing foreign debts, the BSP said in a statement.

    A government corporation's withdrawal of its foreign currency deposit also led to the central bank's foreign reserves, said the statement.

    The current level of foreign reserves can cover 5.6 months of imports of goods and payments of services and income, the BSP said.

    It was also equivalent to 3.6 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity and 2.5 times based on residual maturity, it added.

    Short-term debt based on residual maturity refers to the sum of short-term external debt and medium- and long-term loan repayments falling due within the next 12 months.