KUALA LUMPUR (May 8): Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves rose to US$129.7 billion (RM508.4 billion) as of April 30, maintaining its 11-year high position, according to the central bank’s latest update on Friday.

The figure was slightly higher than the US$128.8 billion recorded as of mid-April 2026, due to a modest gain in foreign currency assets and valuation adjustments. The reserves are now at their strongest level since June 2014.

BNM said the reserves are sufficient to finance 4.7 months of imports of goods and services and cover 0.9 times the country’s short-term external debt.

Short-term external borrowings refer to debts with a maturity of one year or less, largely made up of foreign currency liquidity operations by resident banks, and borrowings by multinational corporations, including foreign banks, from their overseas parent entities.

These borrowings are typically met through borrowers’ own external assets in the normal course of business, and do not impose claims on the central bank’s reserves.

Among the key components, foreign currency reserves rose slightly to US$113.8 billion (April 15: US$112.9 billion), while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve position remained unchanged at US$1.3 billion.

Meanwhile, the special drawing rights (SDRs) — reserve assets maintained by the IMF based on a basket of currencies — were unchanged at US$5.9 billion. Others that were also unchanged include gold holdings at US$6.4 billion and other reserve assets at US$2.3 billion.

BNM releases its international reserves data every two weeks.