KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): The ringgit-Singapore dollar (SGD) rate on Tuesday (July 26) touched an intraday low of 3.2182 at 9.24am — marking a new low against the SGD — before easing to 3.2154 at 6pm.
At 8am, the ringgit to SGD was at 3.2127 before trading between 3.2126 to 3.2182 throughout the day.
Following the sharp depreciation of the ringgit against the SGD, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Ministry of Finance pronounced the ringgit to be relatively stable.
BNM governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said Malaysia's nominal effective exchange rate registered only a marginal depreciation of around 0.1%.
"Relative to the [US] dollar, most major and regional currencies — including the ringgit — have depreciated. However, the ringgit has remained broadly stable when compared against currencies of our major trade partners,” she said in a keynote speech on Tuesday (July 26) at the 12th International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing (IFCTF) 2022.
Nor Shamsiah added the central bank continues to use the tools at its disposal to ensure movements in the ringgit are orderly, in an environment of aggressive monetary policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve.
In Parliament, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah said the local note had declined by 6.2% versus the US dollar since early 2022, which was in line with the performance of regional and developed countries, whose currencies had depreciated between 2.8% and 16.4% as of July 22.
He highlighted that year-to-date, the ringgit had increased in value against several major currencies, such as the Japanese yen (+12.2%), British pound (+6%), euro (+4.6%), the Philippine peso (+3.5%), and Thai baht (+3.3%).