The Malaysian Ringgit continues its downward slide in relation to the US Dollar today, with the national currency opening 3.99 to the USD in early morning trading.
The ringgit has been suffering its worst performance in 17 years against the greenback, dropping 0.8% from its closing value of 3.9600/9630 at 5pm Tuesday.
A currency dealer intimated to Bernama that foreign banks were offloading the ringgit, which is currently under pressure from a lack of domestic leads, falling crude oil prices, and continued political uncertainty.
“Anticipation of the Federal Reserve interest rate increase, falling government bond prices and devaluation of China’s yuan yesterday also promted ringgit selling,” the source added.
A quick check on Google showed that the ringgit is now trading at 4.03 against the dollar in midday trading.
This is the lowest the ringgit has been in value since the Asian financial crisis of 1998, when Bank Negara stepped in and pegged the ringgit to the USD at 3.80, to stave off a steeper drop.
The peg remained in place until 2005.
