These are the 10 countries with the lowest foreign exchange reserves in the world in 2021.

Foreign exchange reserves are one of a country's assets that can be used to finance balance of payments. In addition, foreign exchange reserves are also used to intervene in the market to maintain exchange rate stability.

Amidst current global economic uncertainty, a country's foreign exchange reserves are crucial for financing imports and foreign debt amid the strengthening US dollar. Several countries have even experienced crises because they are no longer able to import goods, both food and fuel, because they no longer have foreign exchange reserves.

According to international standards, a country's foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to finance 3 months of imports. However, in reality, many countries have foreign exchange reserve capacity below that standard.

Based on World Bank data, Luxembourg had foreign exchange reserves of US$2.9 billion or the equivalent of Rp42 trillion (at an exchange rate of Rp14,500 per US dollar) in 2021. These reserves were only enough to finance 0.07 months of imports.

This country's foreign exchange reserve capacity was the lowest among countries with data available from the World Bank in 2021.

The next lowest foreign exchange reserve capacity was Ireland, at only 0.22 months of imports. This was followed by Malta at 0.41 months of imports, Cyprus at 0.51 months of imports, and Slovenia at 0.53 months of imports.

Next were the Netherlands with foreign exchange reserve capacity for only 0.74 months and Belgium at 0.86 months of imports. Then Estonia at 0.89 months of imports, Slovakia at 1.02 months of imports, and Lithuania at 1.25 months of imports.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's reserves reached US$144.9 billion in 2021. This amount was sufficient to finance 6.78 months of imports.