Ringgit likely to weaken further after breaching 4.40 against USD: analysts

WHEN Laura Lim, a 38-year-old Malaysian who has worked in Singapore for the past 8 years, heard news of the ringgit depreciating to RM3.19 to the Singapore dollar this week, she had mixed feelings about where the Malaysian currency was headed in the coming months.

The quantity surveyor said: “On the one hand, I am happy as I have more to spend when I go home during the weekends; on the other, I’m also worried that my brother’s business in Johor Bahru will be affected by the increasing costs.”

The ringgit has been trading lower against the US dollar since the start of this year, in anticipation of US interest rate hikes to stabilise inflationary pressures. On May 19, the ringgit weakened past the RM4.40 mark against the greenback for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.