The Malaysian ringgit opened slightly lower on Monday amid cautious sentiments ahead of the country’s GDP announcement for the second quarter of 2023 (Q2 2023) this Friday.
At 9am today, our local note eased to 4.6000/6075 against the US dollar when compared with 4.5865/5895 last Friday.
Chief economist and social finance head of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd, Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said that analysts have estimated the growth of GDP in Q2 2023 to be slower at 3.6% when compared to the 5.6% in Q1 2023.
He also added that investors will be monitoring data from China that will be released soon including Fixed asset Investment that is expected to be sustained at 3.8% in July while Retail Sales are hoped to increase to 4.8% in July from 3.1% previously.
Dr Mohd Afzanizam said that the ringgit will likely stay weak for the next term due to increased concerns over global growth prospects. Therefore, it is expected that the USD/MYR will be around RM4.58-RM4.60 as of today.
He also commented on the recent state elections on Saturday that the outcome of the election could accelerate economic growth hoping that it would get better.
He believes that the voters’ turnout is indicating that Malaysians are now favouring political stability, which is extremely crucial when it is for policy-making, implementation and the outcome of such policies.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly lower than against a basket of major currencies such as the Japanese yen and the British pound.
The Malaysian ringgit has eased against the Japanese yen to 3.1724/1778 from 3.1712/1735 but however, it fell in regards to the British pound to 5.8337/8432 from 5.8230/8268 on Friday but improved when compared to the euro to 5.0310/0392 from 5.0351/0384 previously.
In the meantime, the local currency was traded mostly higher against other Asean currencies.
