Malaysia's forex reserves up

Malaysia's forex reserves up

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's foreign reserves rose 4.8 percent to 104.165 billion ringgit (US$27.4 billion) at mid- January from 99.438 billion ringgit at end-December, the central bank said Thursday.

Foreign reserves have been rising since Malaysia introduced sweeping capital controls on September 1. Bank Negara reports its assets and liabilities every two weeks.

The central bank in a statement said that at mid-January total assets and liabilities rose to 128.856 billion ringgit from 124.709 billion ringgit at end-December.

Loans and advances were lower at 5.591 billion ringgit from 5.773 billion ringgit previously.

Bank Negara said its holdings of Malaysian government paper fell to 901.894 million ringgit from 1.072 billion ringgit.