KUALA LUMPUR (July 22): Malaysia’s international reserves slipped to US$131.8 billion (RM538.75 billion) as at July 15, 2026, according to the central bank’s latest update on Wednesday.

The reserves are sufficient to finance 4.7 months of imports of goods and services, and 0.9 times the country’s short-term external debt, according to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). The latest figure is US$0.8 billion lower than the US$132.6 billion recorded at the end of June.

Short-term external borrowings are debts due within one year or less. They mainly consist of foreign currency liquidity activities by local banks and loans taken by multinational companies, including foreign banks, from their overseas parent companies.

These borrowings are usually covered by the borrowers’ own foreign assets during normal business operations and do not rely on the central bank’s reserves.

Among the key components, foreign currency reserves fell slightly to US$116.4 billion from US$117.2 billion on June 30, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve position remained unchanged at US$1.3 billion.

Meanwhile, the special drawing rights — reserve assets maintained by the IMF based on a basket of currencies — were unchanged at US$6 billion. Others that were also unchanged include gold holdings at US$5.8 billion and other reserve assets at US$2.3 billion.

On Wednesday, the ringgit was unchanged against the US dollar but remained stronger than several major currencies, trading at RM4.0885 per US dollar. 

BNM releases its international reserves data every two weeks.