The Central Bank in its latest update on the country’s international reserves indicated that the amount is at US$114.4 billion as of 15 April 2022.
Although down from US$115.6 in March, the reserves position is sufficient to finance 6.0 months of imports of goods and services and is 1.2 times total short-term external debt.
The breakdown is as, Foreign Currency Reserves US$101.2, IMF Reserve Position US$ 1.4, SDRs US$6., Gold US$2.4, and Other Reserve Assets US$3.4
One of the indicators used by the Bank to measure international reserve adequacy is the reserve coverage of retained imports, which is communicated on a fortnightly basis. As the economy grew and evolved with a higher share of the services sector, this has raised the prominence of services imports in the measure of reserve adequacy.
Bank Negara said, Malaysia’s performance on this indicator is in line with regional and peer economies. On a historical basis, reserve coverage of imports of goods and services indicator has been in the range of between 5 and 8 months since 2008 – well above the generally accepted ‘rule of thumb’ adequacy threshold of 3-months and demonstrates the ability of the Malaysian economy to withstand against external shocks.
