BANK Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves widened to US$114.6 billion (RM501.43 billion) as at December 30, 2022 from US$110.3 billion on December 15.

In a statement today, the central bank said the reserves level has taken into account the quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes.

“The reserves position is sufficient to finance 5.2 months of imports of goods and services and is 1.0 time of the total short-term external debt,” it said.

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$2.6 billion).

The assets comprised gold and foreign exchange and other reserves including SDRs (RM503.29 billion), Malaysian government papers (RM12.82 billion), deposits with financial institutions (RM2.94 billion), loans and advances (RM23.69 billion), land and buildings (RM4.14 billion) and other assets (RM72.06 billion).

The central bank added that capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM153.10 billion), currency in circulation (RM162.07 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM221.89 billion), federal government deposits (RM5.22 billion), other deposits (RM37.29 billion), BNM papers (RM6.65 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM28.21 billion) and other liabilities (RM4.40 billion). – Bernama, January 9, 2023.