KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 7): After two months of decline, Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves climbed 0.7% to US$105.2 billion (RM487.79 billion) as at Oct 31, 2022, from US$104.5 billion as at Oct 14.

The central bank’s international reserves had previously steadily dropped in the past two months from US$110.9 billion as at Aug 15, to Oct 14’s US$104.5 billion.

“The reserves position [of US$105.2 billion] is sufficient to finance 5.5 months of imports of goods and services, and is 1.1 times of the total short-term external debt,” BNM said in a statement on Monday (Nov 7).

Its international reserves consist of five components, namely foreign currency reserves, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves, IMF-linked special drawing rights (SDRs), gold, and other reserve assets.

Notably, foreign currency reserves rose to US$93.7 billion from US$92.6 billion two weeks prior, while other reserve assets dropped to US$2.6 billion from US$3 billion previously.

Meanwhile, the remaining components remained unchanged, with IMF reserves worth US$1.3 billion, SDRs at US$5.5 billion, and gold at US$2.1 billion.

According to the IMF, the SDR is an international reserve asset created by the fund to supplement its member countries’ official reserves.

BNM’s assets totalled RM583.03 billion as at Oct 31, while currency in circulation stood at RM157.86 billion.