Malaysia\\\'s central bank reserves fall $4.7b in last 2 weeks of 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 (Reuters): Malaysia's international reserves fell $4.7 billion in the last two weeks of 2014 as its ringgit currency slid against the dollar, on its way to a 5-1/2 year low struck earlier this week.

The Southeast Asian oil and gas producer was hit hard by the fall in global oil prices, and its currency was the second-worst performing currency in emerging Asia last year. The ringgit has remained under pressure and closed at 3.5650 to the dollar on Thursday, having depreciated some 11.6 per cent since September, when its decline began to accelerate.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said the outflows in the last two weeks of December were "mainly in the form of reversal of non-resident portfolio investment, direct investment abroad by Malaysian companies, acquisition of foreign portfolio assets by residential institutional investors and net repayment of offshore borrowing by the public sector".

The central bank said that the reserves at the end of last year were sufficient to finance 8.4 months of retained imports and were equivalent to 1.1 times the country's short-term external debt. "In 2014, international reserves were supported by a higher current account surplus and inflows of foreign direct investment," Bank Negara said.