KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 23): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)'s international reserves were down to US$106.3 billion as at Sept 15, from US$108.2 billion on Aug 30.

In a statement on Friday (Sept 23), the central bank noted that the reserves position was sufficient to finance 5.3 months of imports of goods and services, and was one times of the total short-term external debt.

Main components of BNM's international reserves included foreign currency reserves, which stood at US$93.9 billion, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves at US$1.3 billion, and US$5.7 billion worth of IMF-linked special drawing rights (SDRs).

Other components were US$2.3 billion worth of gold, and US$3.1 billion worth of other reserve assets.

According to the IMF's website, the SDR is an international reserve asset created by the fund in 1969 to supplement its member countries' official reserves.

"The value of the SDR is based on a basket of five currencies — the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi (yuan), the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling," the IMF said.