Bank Negara Malaysia published its international reserves position as at 28 March 2025, reporting reserves of USD117.5 billion after taking account of quarterly foreign exchange revaluation changes. The reserve level was stated as sufficient to finance 4.9 months of imports of goods and services and equivalent to 0.9 times total short-term external debt. Using the previous import coverage measure, the reserves were described as sufficient to finance 5.7 months of retained imports of goods. The short-term external debt comparison uses reserves data as at 28 March 2025 and short-term external debt data as at the fourth quarter of 2024, with the debt valued using the exchange rate as at the fourth quarter of 2024. Short-term external debt was defined as borrowing from non-residents with maturity of one year or less, accounted mostly by resident banks’ foreign currency liquidity operations and multinational corporations’ borrowing from overseas parents or headquarters, with these obligations expected to be met from their external asset holdings rather than constituting claims on Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves.
Bank Negara Malaysia 2025-04-08
Bank Negara Malaysia reports USD117.5 billion in international reserves and 4.9 months of import cover as at 28 March 2025
Bank Negara Malaysia reported international reserves of USD117.5 billion as of 28 March 2025, sufficient to finance 4.9 months of imports and 0.9 times total short-term external debt. The reserves can also cover 5.7 months of retained imports using a previous measure. Short-term external debt primarily involves resident banks and multinational corporations, with obligations expected to be met from external assets.