KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Malaysia’s international reserves will remain sizeable supported by trade and investment inflows, despite the unwinding of the stimulus in the US and the reversal of international carry trades, said AmResearch in a note today.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) yesterday released its international reserves figures as at December 31, 2013.

The reserves advanced by 3.4 per cent year-on-year to RM441.7 billion in 2013, as compared to RM427.2 billion as at end-2012, although in US dollar terms it deteriorated by 3.4 per cent in 2013.

Alliance Research said the US$400 million fall in reserves could be attributed to some outflow from the financial market after the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) announcement on quantitative easing (QE) tapering following better-than-expected economic data in the US.

Both research houses concurred with BNM that the reserves position is sufficient to finance 9.6 months of retained imports and is 3.7 times the short-term external debt.

Alliance Research said it expects greater confidence from asset managers in emerging markets in 2014, following the Fed’s announcement on QE tapering which is a welcome relief to the global equity market.

For 2014, the research house forecasts a year-end target for the reserves to improve to US$136 billion (RM445.3 billion), with a potential fall to around US$130 billion during the first half of the year. — Bernama