KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 7): Malaysia’s international reserves rose by US$300 million at the end of July from a fortnight earlier, according to the central bank’s latest update on Friday.

Foreign exchange reserves totalled US$132.1 billion, up from US$131.8 billion in mid-July, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said in a statement. The central bank releases data on foreign exchange reserves every two weeks.

The reserves are sufficient to finance 4.7 months of imports of goods and services and cover 90% of the country’s short-term external debt, BNM said.

The build-up came even as the ringgit weakened in the final two weeks of July, suggesting little intervention from the central bank comfortable with the depreciation. BNM had amassed a 12-year high reserves totalling US$132.6 billion at the end of June.

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 the key components, foreign currency reserves rose to US$116.8 billion from US$116.4 billion in mid-July.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve position remained unchanged at US$1.3 billion. The special drawing rights — reserve assets maintained by the IMF based on a basket of major currencies — were also flat at US$6 billion, and gold holding was steady at US$5.8 billion.

Other reserve assets edged down to US$2.2 billion from US$2.3 billion.