The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia amounted to USD116.3 billion as at 30 August 2021. The higher reserves level mainly reflects an additional allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to Malaysia of SDR3.5 billion, equivalent to USD5.0 billion, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The SDR allocation will provide additional liquidity to the global financial system, bolster reserves, build confidence, and enhance the resilience of the world economy^[1]. The reserves position is sufficient to finance 8.3 months of retained imports and is 1.3 times total short-term external debt.

^[1] The overall IMF additional allocation of SDRs amounted to SDR456 billion (equivalent to about USD650 billion) and took effect on 23 August 2021. This allocation is distributed to all member countries in proportion to their respective quota share in the IMF. The IMF press statement can be found here.