KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): Malaysia built up its foreign currency reserves in September 2025 to the highest in 11 years, as its gold holdings grew, latest data from the central bank showed.

International reserves totalled US$123.6 billion as at Sept 30, compared to US$122.8 billion a fortnight earlier. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), which releases the data every two weeks, said the latest reserves level has taken into account the quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes.

The increase in reserves, alongside a strengthening ringgit, is providing a larger buffer for Malaysia to weather any sharp capital outflows. The ringgit has appreciated more than 6% against the US dollar so far this year.

The reserves are sufficient to finance 4.8 months of imports of goods and services, as well as cover 90% of the country’s short-term external debt, BNM said in a statement on Tuesday.

Short-term external debt comprises borrowings from non-residents with a maturity of one year or less.

The borrowings are primarily by resident banks for their foreign currency liquidity operations, as well as by multinational corporations, including foreign banks, borrowing from their overseas parents or headquarters.

The borrowings can be met in the normal course of operations from their external asset holdings, and do not pose any claims on BNM’s international reserves.

Among components of the reserves, foreign currency reserves climbed to US$109.3 billion from US$109.2 billion, while Malaysia’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remained steady at US$1.3 billion.

Special drawing rights, which are IMF-allocated reserve assets based on a basket of major currencies, remained unchanged at US$5.9 billion, while the central bank’s gold holdings climbed to US$4.8 billion.

Other reserve assets remained unchanged at US$2.3 billion.