This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 29, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said that the central bank was not facing any pressure to increase its interest rate, despite the continued weakening of the ringgit.

Zeti described the current interest rate as being “accommodative”.

“It [the current interest rate] is supporting economic activities and we are seeing steady growth of credit, and it has not hampered borrowings from the financial system,” the governor told the media yesterday after the launch of the  Financial LATeracy exhibition at Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery.

She stressed that current global developments were highly volatile, and Malaysia was not spared by the volatility. “This is likely to persist for some time to come, and therefore, we must have the resilience to ride out this period,” Zeti added.

Zeti noted that when the ringgit regained some strength from time to time, it was then affected by other developments around the world, such as in China, the Middle East and the United States.

“Of course, we want our currency to stabilise, but this is not a static environment, but a dynamic one. Therefore, where other currencies are also adjusting, we cannot keep ours at one specific level because it will be misaligned, given the highly dynamic environment,” she said.

The governor added that the international financial system would see some stability once the US Federal Reserve’s decision on its interest rate is clear.

Initially, however, it might trigger off some instability. “Around these global developments, there are other developments in China, the Middle East, as well as commodity prices. This is what the world is today,” Zeti noted.

She acknowledged that the current environment was challenging for those with exposure to foreign currencies, such as parents with children studying abroad and companies with businesses overseas. “We must learn to manage ourselves in such an environment,” Zeti added.

Commenting on Bloomberg’s story last week that Malaysia deserves a junk status by credit default swap traders, Zeti noted that all sorts of things were said about Malaysia during the asian financial crisis.

“In 1999, less than a year after the crisis, we went to tell the world our story. So this is what we must do, and investors will look at how we assess our situation, and they can make their own assessment,” said Zeti, who took over the governor post in 2000, noted that the country had managed to bounce back from the financial crisis that hit Asia severely in 1998.