KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 7): Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) international reserves fell 1.9% to US$96.4 billion (RM399.6 billion) as at Nov 30, 2016, from US$98.3 billion (RM407.8 billion) two weeks earlier.

In a statement today, BNM said the reserves position is sufficient to finance 8.3 months of retained imports and is 1.2 times the short-term external debt, which includes short-term offshore borrowing, non-resident holdings of short-term ringgit debt securities, non-resident deposits with the banking system, and other short-term debt.

Of the reserves, US$89.1 billion was in foreign currency reserves, US$1.1 billion in special drawing rights, US$1.6 billion in gold and US$800 million in IMF reserves position, with the remainder US$3.8 billion in other reserve assets.

Total assets as at Nov 30, 2016 were RM422.89 billion, while currency in circulation amounted to RM92.68 billion.