Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Detailed Disclosure of International Reserves as at end-March 2008

In accordance with the IMF SDDS format, the detailed breakdown of international reserves provides forward looking information on the size, composition and usability of reserves and other foreign currency assets, and the future and potential inflows and outflows of foreign exchange of the Federal Government and Bank Negara Malaysia over the next 12-month period.


The detailed breakdown of international reserves based on the SDDS format is shown in Tables I, II, III and IV. As shown in Table I, official reserve assets amounted to USD120,289.2 million while other foreign currency assets amounted to USD24,625.3 million as at end-March 2008. As shown in Table II, for the next 12 months, the predetermined short-term outflow of foreign currency loans would amount to USD984 million arising from scheduled repayment of external borrowings by the Government. Effective from April 2006, data excludes projected foreign currency inflows arising from interest income and drawdown of project loans amounting to USD4,312 million in the next 12 months. As shown in Table III, the only contingent short-term net drain on foreign currency assets are Government guarantees of foreign debt due within one year, amounting to USD364 million. There are no foreign currency loans with embedded options, no undrawn, unconditional credit lines provided by or to other central banks, international organisations, banks, and other financial institutions. Bank Negara Malaysia also does not engage in options in foreign currencies vis-a-vis ringgit. As shown in Table IV, repo and securities lending activities were insignificant.


Overall, the above detailed breakdown of international reserves under the IMF SDDS format indicates that as at end-March 2008, Malaysia's reserves remain usable and unencumbered.


Table I: Official reserves assets and other foreign currency assets
Table II: Predetermined short-term net drains on foreign currency assets
Table III: Contingent short-term net drains on foreign currency assets
Table IV: Memo Items

Bank Negara Malaysia
30 April 2008

© Bank Negara Malaysia, 2008. All rights reserved.

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