The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia amounted to USD119.7 billion as at 30 September 2024. The reserves level has taken into account the quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes. The reserves position is sufficient to finance 4.8 months of imports of goods and services,^[1] and is 0.9 times^[2] of the total short-term external debt.^[3]

[1] Under the previous import coverage measure, reserves is sufficient to finance 5.5 months of retained imports of goods. For more information on the new indicator, please refer to the article on “Expansion of the Measure on Reserve Coverage of Imports – from Retained Imports to Imports of Goods and Services” in BNM’s Quarterly Bulletin for the Fourth Quarter of 2021 publication, page 27, which can be accessed at bnm.gov.my/-/quarterly-bulletin-4q-2021

[2] The ratio comprises the latest available data on reserves (revalued as at 3Q 2024) and short-term external debt (available as at 2Q 2024). As per normal practice, the short-term external debt is valued using the exchange rate as at 2Q 2024. If the short-term external debt is revalued using the latest exchange rate as at 3Q 2024 (similar timeline as the reserves), the reserves cover of short-term external debt ratio will be 1.0 times.

[3] The short-term external debt comprises of borrowing from non-residents with maturity of one year or less. It is accounted mostly by resident banks in connection with their foreign currency liquidity operations and MNCs (including foreign banks) borrowing from their overseas parent/headquarters. These obligations can be met in the normal course of operations from their external asset holdings and do not pose any claims on BNM international reserves.