Malaysian foreign reserves rise to US$99.4b

This has been the highest amount in two years.

Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign reserves rose by US$0.5b to US$99.4b in July, the highest amount since July 2015.

UOB Economics & Markets Research said, this is equivalent to 7.9 months of retained imports and 1.1 times of short-term external debt.

Foreign selling of bonds dropped by US$536.4m (MYR 2.3b) in July, whilst equities purchased by foreigners grew by US$97.9b (MYR 0.42b).

Surplus trade flows, foreign direct investments, and other investments offset the drop from the foreign selling of bonds.

UOB analyst Julia Goh commented, "2Q 2017 GDP print is likely to be strong around +5% range (1Q 2017: 5.6%). We expect authorities to revise upwards this year’s growth outlook when 2Q 2017 is released next Friday (18 August). BNM current projection is 4.3%-4.8% (UOB: 5.0%; consensus: 5.0%).”