KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) says the central bank’s international reserves amounted to US$103.4 billion as at June 30, up 0.6% from US$102.8 billion as at June 15.

"The reserves position is sufficient to finance 8.3 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times total short-term external debt,” BNM said in a statement.

The foreign currency reserves, which is the largest reserves portion, rose to US$96.6 billion from US$95.3 billion previously, while the International Monetary Fund Reserves position climbed to US$1.3 billion from US$1.2 billion. Gold also rose to US$2.2 billion from US$2.0 billion previously.

Unchanged were special drawing rights at US$1.1 billion, while other reserve assets declined to US$2.2 billion from US$3.2 billion.

The central bank's total assets as at June 30 stood at RM489.62 billion, up from RM484.3 billion two weeks ago.