The reserves position 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, the central bank said in a statement today.

BNM said the main components of the international reserves were foreign currency reserves (US$98.5 billion), International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$1.3 billion), special drawing rights (SDRs) (US$5.7 billion), gold (US$2.3 billion) and other reserve assets (US$3.1 billion).

The assets comprised gold, foreign exchange and other reserves including SDRs (RM488.47 billion), Malaysian government papers (RM12.12 billion), loans and advances (RM23.62 billion), land and buildings (RM4.14 billion) and other assets (RM33.61 billion).

Meanwhile, capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM168.77 billion), currency in circulation (RM157.38 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM173.78 billion), federal government deposits (RM10.22 billion), other deposits (RM12.32 billion), Bank Negara papers (RM7.43 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM28.25 billion) and other liabilities (RM3.73 billion).