Singaporeans planning to go to Malaysia during the upcoming long weekend should take note that the Singapore dollar may not stretch as far as it used to.
After years of weakening, the Malaysian Ringgit has strengthened as the country rides a wave of economic optimism.
Source: Chaiwiwat Duangjinda on Canva
As of the time of writing, S$1 was equivalent to RM3.34, according to Google Finance.
Source: Google Finance
The Ringgit rose as much as 2.3% on Monday (5 Aug), according to Bloomberg.
This was its biggest gain since October 2015 — almost nine years ago.
Better still, the Ringgit outperformed other Asian currencies, including the Japanese yen and the Chinese renminbi.
In fact, the currency has been doing better than its Asian peers this year, Bloomberg reported.
Against the United States Dollar (USD), it was trading up 2.1% at 4.4047 per USD at 1.18pm, then up 1.55% at 4.4272 per USD at 5.56pm.
The Ringgit is strengthening after three years of weakening owing to Malaysian Government efforts to narrow the budget deficit, Bloomberg said.
It’s doing this by measures such as driving policies to boost foreign investments and rolling back subsidies.
This has caused global funds to reignite their interest, injecting US$112 million (S$148 million) into Malaysian stocks this year.
Malaysia’s economic recovery is also gathering pace — its second-quarter gross domestic product has beaten all estimates.
Malaysian Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan was quoted as saying by Bernama on 14 July that the Ringgit was in top position in the region on 11 July, with an increase of about 2%.
He credited the improvement over the last six months to the Government’s “integrated strategy” between his ministry and the central bank.
Some of the measures taken were encouraging foreign direct investments to Malaysia by Government-linked companies and monitoring the exchange of import and export revenues.
He also expressed confidence that the currency would improve further in the second half of 2024.
Another Bernama report on 1 Aug quoted him as saying that the economic growth projections of 4% to 5% in 2024 “can be achieved and may go to a higher level”.
The Ringgit’s performance is a far cry from earlier this year, when it dropped to RM4.77885 against the USD in April.
That was reportedly close to its lowest value against the USD in 26 years.
In February, the Ringgit fell to RM3.57 against the Singapore Dollar, reportedly its the lowest level since the January 1998 Asian Financial Crisis.
Also read: Motorcyclists swarm Woodlands Checkpoint after M’sian Ringgit hits new low against SGD
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Featured image adapted from Chaiwiwat Duangjinda on Canva and Izuddin Helmi Adnan on Unsplash.
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