Economic Highlights : Foreign Exchange Reserves Fell Marginally To US$96.8bn As At 15 March - 22/03/2010

The foreign exchange reserves fell marginally by US$0.04bn or RM0.1bn in 1H March to US$96.8bn as at 15 March, compared with -US$0.08bn or -RM0.3bn in 2H February. This suggests that the repatriation of export proceeds and some inflow of foreign portfolio funds were offset by the payment for import bills. As it stands, the foreign portfolio investment in fixed income papers increased by RM4.1bn in January, the seventh consecutive month of increase and compared with +RM2.8bn in December. This pushed up total holdings in fixed income instruments by foreign portfolio investors to RM73.3bn at end-January, the highest in 17 months and from RM69.2bn in DecemberChart 1). At the current level, the foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to finance 9.2 months of retained imports and cover 4.3 times the short-term external debt of the nation, compared with 7.6 months of retained imports and 3.9x of short-term external debt cover a year ago.

Economic Highlights : Foreign Exchange Reserves Fell Marginally To US$96.8bn As At 15 March - 22/03/2010