Thursday 24 November 2016

If You Think Malaysia Has Got It Bad. Shut Up

And dance is the 2015 humongous hit for American rock band Walk The Moon. The song is taken from the album Talking is hard.

In Malaysia, though "TALKING is Easy" especially when you don't have to prove it. Everything from the Ringgits fall to prices of cooking oil is blamed on one scandal or another.

Malaysia is actually better off, than some of its peers and contemplates in South East Asia.

So "So Shut Up And Dance" and read the two Bloomberg articles below:

1) The Philippines is ground zero for the rout as a resurgent U.S. dollar and Manila’s still-expensive stock market have made it even more vulnerable, with the peso plunging to an eight-year low.

The currency of the Southeast Asian nation reached 50 to the dollar for the first time this decade on Thursday and headed for its biggest annual loss since 2013. While equities are poised for their worst month since August 2013, valuations are still the priciest in Asia.

A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar is heading for the strongest close since at least 2005 .

2) Singapore, on track to post its worst economic performance since the 2009 global financial crisis this year, is bracing for more uncertainty as rising protectionism poses risks for the export-dependent nation.

The city-state Thursday cut the top end of its 2016 growth forecast to 1.5 percent from 2 percent and estimated non-oil domestic exports probably fell as much as 5.5 percent.

The economy contracted an annualized 2 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a report.

For next year, the government’s export forecast ranges between a 1 percent decline to a 1 percent gain.

Krystal Tan, an economist with Capital Economics Ltd. in Singapore, said she’s anticipating growth in the city-state of about 1.5 percent next year, even as exports stabilize.

“It’s a bit surprising that they have the upper range of their forecast so high at 3 percent,” Tan said by phone. “I would expect the government to cut the top of the forecast gradually over the next few months.”