International reserves go up to US$104.4bil

PETALING JAYA: Bank Negara’s international reserves have increased marginally by US$200mil to US$104.4bil as at Aug 30, as compared to US$104.2bil two weeks ago.

In a statement issued yesterday, the central bank pointed out that its current international reserves amount was sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and is equivalent to 0.9 times the short-term external debt.

Bank Negara’s current reserves position was considerably higher than its international reserves of US$100.5bil as at end-August last year. However, for context, the-then reserves position was enough to finance 7.8 months of retained imports and was 1.1 times the short-term external debt.

“The [country’s] short-term external debt is mostly accounted by banking institutions, reflecting the centralisation of liquidity management of Malaysian banks operating in the region and the sizeable presence of foreign banks in Malaysia.

“These institutions hold substantial external assets, which can be drawn upon to meet their external obligations without creating a claim on Bank Negara’s international reserves,” stated the central bank.

Currently, foreign currencies make up the bulk of Bank Negara’s reserves at about US$98.5bil or 94.3%.

Other main components of the central bank’s international reserves are the Special Drawing Rights (US$1.2bil), gold (US$1.5bil), the International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$900mil), as well as other reserve assets (US$2.3bil).