KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) rose by a marginal 0.2% to US$102.3 billion as at Feb 15 this year, from US$102.1 billion recorded as at Jan 31.

In a statement today, BNM said the reserves position is sufficient to finance 7.3 months of retained imports and is one time the country's total short-term external debt.

Foreign currency, the biggest reserves portion, remained at US$96.3 billion, while the International Monetary Fund reserves position was also flat at US$900 million.

Also maintained was special drawing rights at US$1.1 billion, and gold at US$1.6 billion.

Only the other reserve assets portion rose slightly, to US$2.4 billion from US$2.2 billion previously.

As at Feb 15, the central bank’s total assets was down a marginal 0.1% to RM450.35 billion from RM450.94 billion previously.