* Forex reserves can cover 11.5 months worth of imports     * Equal to 5.7 times s-term foreign debt based on residual     * maturity      MANILA, March 7 (Reuters) - The Philippine central bank on Friday released preliminary data on gross international reserves (GIR) at the end of February:                     KEY DATA      Feb      Jan     Dec      Nov      Oct      Sept        GIR ($ bln)  80.343  79.510   83.187   83.572   83.607   83.507        NOTE: Data is preliminary. January figure was revised.       KEY POINTS:     - The increase in the reserves was due mainly to  revaluation adjustments on the central bank's gold holdings, foreign exchange operations and income from investments, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said in a statement.      - Cash remittances from Filipinos working overseas, which help power domestic consumption, rose 9.1 percent to a record $2.155 billion in December from a year earlier. Remittances for all of 2013 climbed 6.4 percent from the previous year to a record $22.76 billion  
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       - The central bank expects record gross international reserves of $88 billion by end of this year.      - It has forecast the country will end 2014 with a balance of payments surplus of $3 billion, or 0.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), narrower than the previous year's $5.1 billion surplus.     - The central bank kept interest rates  
  PHCBIR=ECI
   steady at a record low of 3.5 percent last month, but analysts expect the central bank to start raising rates in the second half of this year to curb price pressures. It next meets on March 27 to review policy.   (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Kim Coghill)  ((karen.lema@thomsonreuters.com)(+632 841-8938)(Reuters Messaging:  karen.lema.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))  Keywords: PHILIPPINES ECONOMY/RESERVES