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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is looking for investment opportunities to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, its top official said. 鈥淲e continue to look for opportunities to diversify into other currencies and asset classes,鈥� BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. told reporters last Friday. The country鈥檚 gross international reserves (GIR) dipped to $83.818 billion in February after the government purchased some dollars to settle its maturing obligations. Prior to this, it amounted to a record $85.274 billion. Tetangco was reacting to a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies released last week that said the country鈥檚 reserves, which serve as cushion in times of external shocks, are 鈥渉igher than the optimal level.鈥� It said keeping such 鈥減assive鈥� liquidity may have an opportunity costs for the Philippines in terms of gaining more by investing funds more 鈥渁ctively.鈥� This was not the first time a red flag was raised with regard to the country鈥檚 huge reserves. Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also warned economies against holding 鈥渆xcessive鈥� GIR for the same reasons.