KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 \u2014 The ringgit jumped to a seven-year high to close at 3.9175 versus the United States (US) dollar on Wednesday as improved risk sentiment and a softer greenback continued to support the local currency, which rose for the third consecutive day this week.<\/p>\n
At 6pm, the ringgit bounced to 3.9175\/9235 versus the greenback from 3.9500\/9555 at Tuesday\u2019s close. This was the strongest closing level since it hit 3.9150 in April 2018.<\/p>\n
Compared to the same time last year, the ringgit has increased by 10.77 per cent against the greenback.<\/p>\n
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the ringgit\u2019s rise has been underpinned by growing expectations that the US Federal Reserve may adopt a more accommodative policy stance following recent signs of economic moderation in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeaker US economic indicators, particularly the January consumer confidence data, have reinforced expectations that the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting later tonight could deliver a more dovish policy tone. <\/p>\n
“This could provide room for emerging market currencies, including the ringgit, to strengthen further in the near term,\u201d he told Bernama.<\/p>\n
Afzanizam added that the ringgit\u2019s appreciation was also due to a decline in the US Dollar Index, which fell 0.93 per cent to 96.026 points, reflecting continued weakness in the greenback amid shifting expectations over the US monetary policy outlook.<\/p>\n
Against other major currencies, the ringgit appreciated vis-\u00e0-vis the British pound to 5.4011\/4093 from 5.4103\/4178, climbed against the euro to 4.6955\/7027 from 4.6958\/7023, and gained versus the Japanese yen to 2.5652\/5692 from 2.5691\/5730 at yesterday’s close.<\/p>\n
It strengthened vis-\u00e0-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.1072\/1122 from 3.1174\/1219, advanced versus the Thai baht to 12.6135\/6389 from 12.7247\/7478, firmed against the Indonesian rupiah to 234.2\/234.7 from 235.5\/236.0, and rose against the Philippine peso to 6.67\/6.68 from 6.68\/6.70 previously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 \u2014 The ringgit jumped to a seven-year high to close at 3.9175 versus the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-269032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}