KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The ringgit continued to depreciate against the US dollar for the fourth consecutive session, no thanks to external macro factors, said an economist.
At 6pm, the local note eased further to 4.2800/2830 against the US dollar from 4.2505/2515 at Monday’s close.
The market was closed yesterday in conjunction with the Nuzul Al-Quran holiday.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid noted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already downgraded its global growth forecast to 3.6 per cent for 2022 from the 4.4 per cent forecast in January, citing the war in Ukraine and its spillover effects to be the main factor.
“As such, risk aversion has seeped into the US Dollar Index which continues to remain above the 100-point level,” he told Bernama.
He said the latest round of lockdowns in China has further dampened global economic sentiment.
“We also saw that regional currencies, including the Thai baht and Chinese yuan, have declined,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit also traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.
It fell against the Singapore dollar to 3.1371/1398 from 3.1228/1240 on Monday but strengthened versus the Japanese yen to 3.3432/3458 from 3.3569/3579 previously.
The local currency declined vis-a-vis the British pound at 5.5781/5820 from 5.5303/5316 on Monday and weakened against the euro to 4.6468/6501 from 4.5867/5878.
— Bernama
