KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 8): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) international reserves rose by 0.62% to US$113.5 billion (RM527.60 billion) as of Dec 29 last year, from US$112.8 billion a fornight ago.

“The reserves level has taken into account the quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes.

“The reserves position is sufficient to finance 5.4 months of imports of goods and services and is 1.0 times the short-term external debt,” the central bank said in a statement on Monday.

BNM reported that foreign currency reserves, one of the main components of the reserves, increased slightly to US$100.9 billion from US$100.7 billion previously.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves rose slightly to US$1.4 billion from US$1.3 billion, while special drawing rights (SDR) increased to US$5.8 billion from US$5.7 billion, and gold rose to US$2.6 billion from US$2.3 billion.

Other reserves assets were unchanged at US$2.8 billion.