International Reserves, Current Account Imbalance and External Debt in East Asian Economies

This study investigates the impact of current account imbalance and external debt on international reserve holdings in nine East Asian economies, namely China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand (henceforth East Asia). These countries are further divided into four groups: East Asia, ASEAN5, ASEAN4, and the non-ASEAN countries. After the 1997-98 East Asian financial crisis, these countries had increased their reserve holdings and the current accounts in majority of these countries had experienced consistent surpluses at least until 2005. Besides, most of these countries had also increased their external debt holdings in recent years. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, panel cointegration, and panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) were utilized to examine the relationship between international reserve holdings and its determinants. The study covers the period from 1970 to 2005. There are three important conclusions can be derived from the empirical findings. First, current account balance has a positive and significant relationship with international reserve holdings in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, East Asia, ASEAN5, ASEAN4, and non-ASEAN countries. The positive relationship indicates that the rise in the current account surplus leads to the rise in international reserve holdings in these countries. Second, total external debt is a substitute for international reserves in China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, East Asia, ASEAN5, and ASEAN4. Third, short term external debt acts as a substitute for international reserves in Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, ASEAN5, and ASEAN4. The role of external debt as substitute for international reserves implies that external debt is used to finance international transactions. However, in China, Singapore, and the non-ASEAN countries, short term external debt acts as a complement for international reserves. In other words, these countries increased reserves as their precautionary measure against short term capital flow reversals during the crisis. High international reserve holdings and current account surplus are associated with the savings investment imbalance in East Asia. The imbalance is due to the limited ability of the private sector to transform its savings into investment. The development in the regional capital markets may assist the private sector to circulate its savings within the region and minimize its dependence on external financing

Demand For International Reserves in ASEAN-5 Economies

The ASEAN-5 economies were observed to increase their demand for international reserves after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. This was coincided with their consistent current account surplus during the same period. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the existence of long-run relationship between reserve demand and current account for the period of 1997-2005. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach as proposed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001) was employed, and the empirical results revealed that current account surplus leads to the rise in the demand for international reserves in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.Bound Test, ARDL Approach, International Reserves, ASEAN-5

International reserves, current account imbalance and external debt : evidence from Malaysia.

The purpose of the study is to analyze both the short-run and long-run demand for international reserves in Malaysia for the period 1970-2004. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach proposed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001) is used to test for the existence of cointegration relationship between the demand for international reserves and its determinants. The empirical results suggest that current account balance and short-term external debt significantly affect the demand for international reserves both in the long run and short run

Rainfall analysis of the Kelantan big yellow flood 2014

In December 2014, Kelantan was hit by the worst flood ever recorded. Did the rainfall exceed historical records, how rare are they and what causes them? This paper answers these questions. Estimation of the return periods uses the GEV distribution model and stations with more than 25 years records. Spatial distribution plots of the cumulated rainfall depths were constructed using IDW interpolation method. Four major outcomes are: 1) Spatial rainfall patterns show high amounts of rainfall accumulated by phases (Phase 1- daily rainfall up to 300 mm; Phase 2- daily rainfall up to 500 mm); 2) record breaking rainfall events occurred at 9 stations significantly at Gunung Gagau (1598.9 mm compared to 976.5 mm 7-day cumulated rainfall). Many stations upstream of the river basin experienced ARIs near and over 100 years and several experienced more than 200 years; and 4) Enhanced rainfall were experienced due to the combined effect of the monsoon season, Madden Julian Oscillation and temperature below anomalies at the Siberian High

The effectiveness of rice husk ash as additive in palm oil-based compost in enhancing the nitrogen uptake by brassica oleracea var. alboglabra L. (Chinese Kale) plant

Rice husk ash (RHA), palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge, and decanter cake can be utilized as compost to reduce environmental pollution. This research attempted to investigate the effect of RHA addition to palm oil-based compost in boosting the nitrogen (N) uptake and the growth of Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra L. (Chinese kale plant). Two categories of compost treatment were prepared in this study: Treatment 1 (control) and Treatment 2 [consisting of 10% (wt/wt) of RHA]. Both treatments were composted for 60 days until it was matured. The temperature and pH of the composts were recorded daily throughout the study. The treatments were analyzed for moisture, water-holding capacity, and nutrient content. The Chinese kale plant was grown in growing media and applied with Treatment 1 and Treatment 2 composts. The progress of plant growth was tracked every week. Based on the analysis, Treatment 2 exhibited a higher temperature and pH profile than Treatment 1. Meanwhile, the contents of N, P, and K were higher in Treatment 1 compost. However, Treatment 2 compost had higher silicon (Si) content, moisture content, and water-holding capacity. Based on the field test study carried out on the Chinese kale plant, the N uptake, and the growth of the plant, were found to be significantly higher when applied with Treatment 2 compost compared to Treatment 1 by 19% to 31% and 13% to 53%, respectively. It was proven that the addition of 10% RHA managed to provide an adequate amount of Si, moisture content, and water-holding capacity in Treatment 2 compost that can enhance the N uptake and improve the growth of the Chinese kale plant in this study

Demand for international reserves: evidence from East Asia

This paper examines the demand for international reserves in nine East Asian economies during the period 1970-2005 using panel cointegration and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS). The panel cointegration tests find the existence of a long-run relationship between the demand for international reserves and its determinants. The panel group FMOLS results indicate that current account balance and total external debt are statistically significant and exert a positive and negative impact, respectively, on the demand for international reserves in East Asia

Demand For International Reserves in ASEAN-5 Economies

The ASEAN-5 economies were observed to increase their demand for international reserves after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. This was coincided with their consistent current account surplus during the same period. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the existence of long-run relationship between reserve demand and current account for the period of 1997-2005. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach as proposed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001) was employed, and the empirical results revealed that current account surplus leads to the rise in the demand for international reserves in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore

Demand For International Reserves in ASEAN-5 Economies

The ASEAN-5 economies were observed to increase their demand for international reserves after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. This was coincided with their consistent current account surplus during the same period. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the existence of long-run relationship between reserve demand and current account for the period of 1997-2005. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach as proposed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001) was employed, and the empirical results revealed that current account surplus leads to the rise in the demand for international reserves in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore

Developing of emergency evacuation kit in response of Malaysia East Coast flood disaster

The flood struck East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia in December 2014 has resulted in huge natural disaster. More than 4.82 million people across four states especially Kelantan were sink flooded, resulted shut down of the area from outside traffic and delaying the rescue forces. Emergency aid has difficulties to reach the evacuation centres and victims were scattered trapped with low life support on water, food, energy and healthcare supply. Therefore, an integrated assessment of flood in the basin is important to seek for effective responses. In response to disaster vulnerability for risk reduction among society who living in flood prone, community contribution is needed in preparation of emergency evacuation kit as a part of preparedness. The survey will be conduct by distribution of questionnaire to the flood disaster victims in order to discover the most important necessities during flood situation. The results of this survey may lead to the preparation of emergency evacuation kit for use in future

Development of a local integrated disaster risk assessment framework for Malaysia

This study developed an integrated disaster risk assessment framework (IDRAF) to measure disaster risk at the local administrative boundaries in Malaysia. The proposed framework can enhance government effort for disaster risk reduction by implementing an integrated disaster risk framework and guiding decision makers to properly evaluate and analyze risk for mitigation, preparedness, and planning. The framework was developed, expanding from the multi‐hazard spatial overlapping and Methods for the Improvement of Vulnerability Assessment in Europe (MOVE) theoretical framework. There are five significant phases to develop this framework: problem formulation, data collection, multi‐hazard characterization, multi‐dimensional vulnerability characterization, and weightage determination. The IDRAF proposed for Malaysia consists of eight hazards and six vulnerability dimensions, which consist of 16 factors (or vulnerability group) and 54 indicators. The multi‐hazard characterization has two components: frequency of occurrence and spatial inter-action. The multidimensional vulnerability characterization reduces vulnerability indicators using principal component analysis (PCA). Measuring integrated risk is an effective strategy at the local level or national level to assess the potential disaster impacts in detail and accurately. This study will offer explicit knowledge and boost community competency, creating techniques and tools to analyze various risk factors and vulnerability indicators for decision makers and practitioners