KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): Malaysia’s international reserves fell US$200 million in the first two weeks of March, according to the latest data released by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on Thursday.

As of March 13, the country's foreign exchange reserves totalled US$128.1 billion, down from US$128.3 billion recorded on Feb 27, the central bank said in a statement.

The current reserves position is sufficient to finance 4.7 months of imports of goods and services, and cover 0.9 times the nation’s short-term external debt.

Such short-term debts are borrowings with maturities of one year or less. They largely comprise foreign currency liquidity operations by resident banks and borrowings by multinational corporations, including foreign banks, from their overseas parents or headquarters. These obligations are typically serviced through borrowers’ own external assets and do not place claims on the central bank’s reserves.

Among the five reserve components, foreign currency dipped to US$112.4 billion from US$112.5 billion as at Feb 27, while other reserves slipped to US$2.3 billion from US$2.4 billion.

The remaining three components were unchanged: The International Monetary Fund reserves position stayed at US$1.3 billion, special drawing rights remained at US$6 billion, and gold holdings were kept flat at US$6.1 billion.