KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 8): The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) rose 0.3% to US$103.6 billion as at Dec 31, 2019 from US$103.3 billion as at Dec 13, 2019.

In a statement today, the central bank said the reserves level has taken into account the quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes. The reserves position is sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times total short-term external debt.

BNM said its foreign currency reserves stood at US$97.2 billion, up 0.7% from US$96.5 billion as at Dec 13, 2019.

The International Monetary Fund reserves were unchanged at US$1.1 billion, as well as special drawing rights (SDRs) at US$1.1 billion.

Gold reserves stood at US$1.9 billion, while other reserve assets totalled US$2.3 billion. 

The central bank added that its assets included gold and foreign exchange and other reserves, including SDRs, which amounted to RM424.12 billion, Malaysian government papers (RM1.98 billion), loans and advances (RM7.11 billion), land and buildings (RM4.16 billion) and other assets (RM11.64 billion).

Meanwhile, capital and liabilities consisted of paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM143.22 billion), currency in circulation (RM114.1 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM163.92 billion), federal government deposits (RM3.57 billion), other deposits (RM542.98 million), BNM papers (RM15.83 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM7.62 billion) and other liabilities (RM2.74 billion).