“The reserves position is sufficient to finance 5.1 months of imports of goods and services, and is one time the total short-term external debt,” said the central bank in a statement today.

BNM said foreign currency reserves declined to US$96.5 billion from US$98 billion as at Sept 29, while other reserve assets increased to US$3 billion from US$2.7 billion.

The other main components of the international reserves were unchanged, with the International Monetary Fund’s reserve position standing at US$1.4 billion, the Special Drawing Rights at US$5.7 billion and gold at US$2.3 billion.

Total assets stood at RM614.12 billion, comprising gold and foreign exchange and other reserves, including SDRs (RM510.96 billion), Malaysian government papers (RM12.76 billion), loans and advances (RM23.91 billion), land and buildings (RM4.14 billion) as well as other assets (RM62.35 billion).

BNM said capital and liabilities comprised paid-up capital (RM100 million), reserves (RM169.84 billion), currency in circulation (RM158.4 billion), deposits by financial institutions (RM158.38 billion), federal government deposits (RM19.79 billion), other deposits (RM37.66 billion), Bank Negara papers (RM34.66 billion), allocation of SDRs (RM29.85 billion) and other liabilities (RM5.43 billion).