Malaysia’s international reserves rise to US$102.6 bil

(Bernama) – Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves amounted to US$102.6 billion as at May 15, up from US$102.5 billion as at April 30.

BNM said the reserves position is sufficient to finance 8.1 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the total amount of short-term external debt.

In a statement, the central bank said the main components of the international reserves were foreign currency reserves (US$95.1 billion), International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$1.2 billion), Special Drawing Rights or SDRs (US$1.1 billion), gold (US$2.0 billion) and other reserve assets (US$3.2 billion).

It said the assets comprised gold and foreign exchange and other reserves including SDRs, which amounted to RM444.05 billion, Malaysian government papers (RM10.03 billion), deposits with financial institutions (RM5.75 billion), loans and advances (RM7.79 billion), land and buildings (RM4.16 billion, and other assets (RM14.89 billion).

Capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM163.80 billion), currency in circulation (RM125.41 billion), deposits with financial institutions (RM152.91 billion), federal government deposits (RM2.15 billion), other deposits (RM15.69 billion), Bank Negara papers (RM16.50 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM7.87 billion), and other liabilities (RM2.23 billion).