Bank Negara Malaysia published its latest international reserves position, reporting reserves of USD126.6 billion as at 31 March 2026 after taking account of quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes. The level is stated as sufficient to finance 4.6 months of imports of goods and services and equivalent to 0.9 times total short-term external debt. Under the previous import coverage measure, the same reserves level would cover 5.7 months of retained imports of goods. The short-term external debt comparison uses reserves as at 31 March 2026 and short-term external debt data as at the fourth quarter of 2025, with the debt valued using the exchange rate as at the fourth quarter of 2025; the debt is defined as borrowing from non-residents with maturity of one year or less and is described as largely linked to resident banks’ foreign currency liquidity operations and multinational companies’ borrowing from overseas parent entities, which are expected to be met from external asset holdings rather than drawing on Bank Negara Malaysia’s reserves.
Bank Negara Malaysia 2026-04-07
Bank Negara Malaysia reports USD126.6 billion in international reserves with 4.6 months of import cover
Bank Negara Malaysia reported international reserves of USD126.6 billion as at 31 March 2026, sufficient to finance 4.6 months of imports of goods and services and equivalent to 0.9 times total short-term external debt. Under the previous import coverage measure, the same reserves would cover 5.7 months of retained imports of goods, while the short-term external debt is largely linked to resident banks’ foreign currency liquidity operations and multinational companies’ borrowing from overseas parents.