The Malaysian Insight

THE ringgit is now at its worst state compared with other Asian currencies and not stronger as reported recently, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli said today.

He said the ringgit was at its lowest against Singapore, Thailand, Philipines and South Korea compared to before Najib Razak was appointed finance minister in 2007.

“Other than Indonesia and Vietnam, the ringgit is worse off against the Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and South Korean currencies. Since 2008, the ringgit has dropped 27.7% while other currencies went up 6.8%,” Rafizi said in his statement today.

Comparing to Thailand, Rafizi said the baht was still strong and shot down claims that all currencies had dropped against the US dollar.

“Even worse, the ringgit’s value has been dropping faster than other currencies since the news of 1MDB money going into the private accounts of Najib was reported by Wall Street Journal.

“The loss of the ringgit’s value compared to 2015 (before the 1MDB news was reported) is 12.3% which is the highest among Asian currencies,” Rafizi said.

Rafizi said Najib through the 1MDB scandal had caused the ringgit to weaken unlike what was reported by a news portal last week, which claimed the ringgit was strong.

“The report is then made an excuse to rebut parties that frequently raise questions about the ringgit’s loss (including me), saying that our claims so far have  not been true.

“That is why I have taken the time to collect data on the ringgit and other currencies from 2007 to May 2017,” he said. – July 3, 2017.