KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves rose to US$103.6 billion as of Dec 31, 2019, from US$103.3 billion on Dec 13 last year.

In a statement today, the central bank said the reserves level had taken into account the quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes, and would be sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and was 1.1 times total short-term external debt.

BNM said the main components of the international reserves comprised foreign currency reserves (US$97.2 billion), International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$1.1 billion), Special Drawing Rights (SDR) (US$1.1 billion), gold (US$1.9 billion), and other reserve assets (US$2.3 billion).

It said assets included gold, foreign exchange and other reserves including SDRs, which amounted to RM424.12 billion, Malaysian government papers (RM1.98 billion), deposits with financial institutions (RM2.63 billion), loans and advances (RM7.11 billion), land and buildings (RM4.16 billion), and other assets (RM11.64 billion).

Capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM143.22 billion), currency in circulation (RM114.09 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM163.92 billion), federal government deposits (RM3.57 billion), other deposits (RM542.98 million), Bank Negara Papers (RM15.83 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM7.62 billion), and other liabilities (RM2.74 billion). — Bernama