KUALA LUMPUR, Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves rose to US$122 billion as of Aug 15, up from US$121.3 billion on July 31.
According to the central bank, the reserves are sufficient to cover 4.8 months of imports of goods and services and equal to 0.9 times the country’s short-term external debt.
The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia rose to US$122.0 billion as at Aug 15, from US$121.3 billion on July 31.
Of the total, US$108.4 billion is held in foreign currency assets, while the rest comprises US$5.9 billion in special drawing rights, US$4.1 billion in gold, US$1.3 billion with the International Monetary Fund, and US$2.3 billion in other reserve assets.
Bank Negara explained that the short-term external debt mainly involves borrowings by resident banks for foreign currency liquidity operations, as well as loans taken by multinational companies and foreign banks from their parent firms abroad. “These obligations are usually settled through external asset holdings and do not create claims on Bank Negara’s reserves,” the central bank said.
