KUALA LUMPUR (June 20): Malaysia’s economic shield just got another boost as international reserves climbed to the highest in more than a decade by mid-June, the latest data showed.

Foreign exchange reserves climbed some US$300 million, totalling US$119.9 billion as of June 13, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said in a statement. That compares to US$119.6 billion at the end of May.

The reserves position is sufficient to finance five months of imports of goods and services and is 0.9 times the total short-term external debt, said the central bank, which releases data on foreign exchange reserves every two weeks.

Short-term external debt comprises borrowings from non-residents with maturity of one year or less, mostly by resident banks for their foreign currency liquidity operations, as well as multinational corporations, including foreign banks, borrowings from their overseas parents or headquarters.

Among key reserve components, foreign currency reserves increased to US$106.7 billion from US$106.4 billion as at end-May, while the country’s position at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was steady at US$1.3 billion.

Special drawing rights — reserve assets allocated by the IMF based on a basket of major currencies — were unchanged at US$5.8 billion, as were the central bank’s gold holdings, at US$3.8 billion.

Other reserve assets also remained unchanged at US$2.3 billion.