The rising value of Ringgit has made buying items off the Internet much more cheaper. Recently, the ringgit closed at a new 13 year high against US dollar with the exchange rate of 2.96. It has taken more than a decade to strengthen below 3.00 against US dollar. Obviously, it is fully depend on US economy which brightened the outlook for exports.
As we can see that while the ringgit has strengthened against US dollar, it has weakened against euro, Australian dollar, pound and yen. If compared to last year 2010, the Ringgit Malaysia is one of Asia’s best performing currencies as it has appreciated by 9.2% against the US dollar, 11.94% against the British pound and 15.73% against the euro.
No matter how, the ringgit is expected to appreciate to greater heights in the near term, and towards 2.90 per US dollar in this year. This estimation is based on our stronger economic fundamentals which trigger better economic growth prospect, the general election, plus the recent exercise on the New Economic Model and central bank’s monetary tightening policies.
Besides that, US dollar’s weakness was due to the major concerns over unclear US on housing and employment. And, US Federal Reserve has kept interest rates in a range of zero to 0.25% which is much more lower than Malaysia’s OPR which stands at 2.75% currently, so this has led to big inflow money flying to Malaysia. As the result, the value of the ringgit rose over the past few months.
