kuala lumpur: Ringgit is expected to trade carefully against the US dollar next week ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on February 20th.
Dr Mauamarat Malaysia BHD Chief Economist Dr Mau Afzanizam Abdulrashid said traders and market participants will assess the US Federal Reserve’s stance to ease monetary policy this year.
“We have expressed the opinion that the Fed is not in a hurry to lower the Fed fund ratio (FFR) in the near future.
“This is because FFRs in general are still limited, and the Fed doesn’t want the inflation trajectory to travel towards its 2% target, especially after US inflation data is higher than expected. I’m here.”
The US headline inflation and core consumer price index rose 3.0% and 3.3% in January, respectively.
Mohd Afzanizam said local memos could test the immediate support level of RM4.43 next week.
During the week that just ended, the Ringit fluctuated between the profits and losses of concerns over policy uncertainty under US President Donald Trump.
However, it rebounded from overselling levels, and ended the week even higher, supported by Malaysia’s strong 2024 Gross Domestic Product Performance.
From Friday to Friday, Ringgit thanked 4.4375/4420 to 4.4310/4385 the previous week.
Meanwhile, local currencies were almost lower than major currencies.
It weakened to 5.5769/5863 against the British pound from 5.5278/5334, and slid to 4.6437/6515 against the Euro from 4.6101/6148. However, from 2.9217/9249, the company was strengthened to 2.9048/9099 against Japanese yen.
Ringgits have also fallen against most ASEAN currencies.
It declined to 272.4/272.9 against Indonesian rupiah to 272.6/273.2, weakening to 3.2866/2901 against the Singapore Dollar to 3.3055/3113. It was also bordered between 7.65/7.66 and 7.66/7.68 against the Philippine Peso.
However, local memos rose from 13.1853/2041 to 13.1761/2059 against the Thai baht.
