KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 ― Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves increased to US$114.9 billion (RM493 billion) as at January 13, 2022 from US$114.6 billion recorded at December 30, 2022.

In a statement today, the central bank said the reserves position is sufficient to finance 5.3 months of imports of goods and services and is one time of the total short-term external debt.

It said under the previous import coverage measure, reserves were sufficient to finance 6.2 months of retained imports of goods.

BNM said the main components of the international reserves were foreign currency reserves (US$102.6 billion), International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$1.4 billion), Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) (US$5.7 billion), gold (US$2.3 billion) and other reserve assets (US$2.9 billion).

The assets comprised gold and foreign exchange and other reserves including SDRs (RM504.52 billion), Malaysian government papers (RM12.82 billion), deposits with financial institutions (RM4.89 billion), loans and advances (RM23.70 billion), land and buildings (RM4.14 billion) and other assets (RM71.72 billion).

The central bank added that capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM160.36 billion), currency in circulation (RM164.62 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM210.58 billion), federal government deposits (RM9.78 billion), other deposits (RM38.06 billion), Bank Negara papers (RM5.95 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM28.21 billion) and other liabilities (RM4.12 billion). ― Bernama