KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — The ringgit ended the final day of the trading week lower, once again touching the 4.40 mark against the US dollar due to worries about the global economic outlook and murky outlook on China’s economy, said an analyst.
At 6pm, the local note eased to 4.4010/4080 against the greenback from 4.3960/4000 at Thursday’s close.
On December 1, 2022, the local note strengthened to 4.4030/4100 against the greenback from the previous day’s close of 4.4420/4500.
SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said Asia’s forex exuberance has been tempered by rising Covid-19 cases in China and scepticism of the force of reopening economic tailwinds that the current level of Asian risk assets implies.
“The outlook for China looks pretty murky, given the medical community seems ill-prepared for the reopening. Hence, a surge in Covid-19 cases could negatively affect reopening efforts,” he told Bernama.
According to an international news portal, the daily cases of Covid-19 in China dropped to 16,797 cases on Friday after hitting a record 39,791 cases nationwide on November 26, 2022.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies at today’s close.
The local note weakened against the British pound to 5.3908/3994 from 5.3504/3552 at Thursday’s close and fell vis-a-vis the euro to 4.6466/6540 from 4.6127/6169 yesterday.
It also depreciated versus the Singapore dollar to 3.2545/2601 from 3.2381/2415 on Thursday and shed against the Japanese yen to 3.2315/2369 from 3.2090/2121 previously.
— Bernama
