BANK Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves widened to US$110.3 billion (RM488.52 billion) as at December 15 from US$109.7 billion on November 30.

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 1.1 times of the total short-term external debt.

It said the main components of the international reserves were foreign currency reserves (US$98.5 billion), International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$1.3 billion), Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) (US$5.5 billion), gold (US$2.1 billion) and other reserve assets (US$2.9 billion).

The assets comprised gold and foreign exchange and other reserves, including SDRs (RM511.77 billion), Malaysian government papers (RM12.36 billion), loans and advances (RM23.66 billion), land and buildings (RM4.14 billion) and other assets (RM67.66 billion).

The central bank added that capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM166.89 billion), currency in circulation (RM159.27 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM202.95 billion), federal government deposits (RM14.15 billion), other deposits (RM35.98 billion), BNM papers (RM6.51 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM28.70 billion) and other liabilities (RM5.05 billion). – Bernama, December 22, 2022.