Bank Negara defends ringgit amid political storm

Singapore

MALAYSIA'S central bank intervened for a third successive trading day on Tuesday to support the ringgit currency, traders said, as corruption allegations swirled round Prime Minister Najib Razak, raising doubts over his grip on power.

Thanks to Bank Negara's damage limitation, the ringgit has lost only 0.8 per cent since the political storm broke on Friday, but it has weakened past an old currency peg of 3.80 per US dollar, fixed in September 1998 during the Asian financial crisis and scrapped in 2005.