KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves eased by US$200 million to US$129.5 billion as at May 15, 2026.

Two weeks earlier, the country’s international reserves stood at US$129.7 billion as at April 30, 2026.

Nevertheless, the latest reserves level remained the strongest since 2014.

BNM said the reserves are sufficient to finance 4.6 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 fell slightly to US$113.5 billion, from US$113.8 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.

Its other reserve assets, however, edged up to US$2.4 billion, from US$2.3 billion previously.

BNM releases its international reserves data every two weeks.