This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 8, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves slipped 1.07% to US$101.7 billion (RM424.09 billion) as at Oct 31, from US$102.8 billion on Oct 15.

BNM said in a statement yesterday the reserves position is sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and is 0.9 times the short-term external debt.

Foreign currency, the biggest reserves portion, was at US$96 billion as at Oct 31, while the International Monetary Fund reserves position was at US$900 million.

Special drawing rights were at US$1.1 billion, while gold was at US$1.5 billion; other reserve assets were at US$2.2 billion.

The bank’s total assets stood at RM443.016 billion, while currency in circulation was at RM103.141 billion.