Bank Negara international reserves up RM1.3b as at Aug 28

KUALA LUPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves rose RM1.3bil to RM357.7bil (US$94.7b) at Aug 28 from two weeks ago.

“The reserves position is sufficient to finance 7.4 months of retained imports and is 1.0 time the short-term external debt,” the central bank said on Friday.

The reserves increased from the RM356.4bil (US$94.5b) on Aug 14. The reserves position was sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and it was 1.0 time the short-term external debt.

Short-term external debt includes short-term offshore borrowing, non-resident holdings of short-term ringgit debt securities, non-resident deposits with the banking system and other short-term debt.

According to the BNM data, the international reserves have fallen from RM405.5bil (or US$116.0bil) as at Dec 31, 2014 compared with RM441.9bil (US$134.9bil) as at end-2013.