Thursday 19 January 2017

Bank Negara Malaysia. Oxford Economics.Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)

Is the monster 2010 hit for the twins Jedward from the album Planet Jedward.

Oxford Economics according to CNBC says that the Ringgit is under pressure, and is worst off, than even the Indonesian Rupiah, making it one of the worst performing currency in emerging markets since the US presidential election concluded.

Read Below :

Oliver Salmon, senior economist at Oxford Economics, told CNBC's "The Rundown" on Thursday that Malaysia was facing pressure on its currency and vulnerability to outflows, especially with high foreign ownership of their government bonds.

But he noted that while Indonesia's rupiah has been relatively stable, Malaysia's ringgit has been one of the worst performing emerging Asia currencies since the U.S. election.

"They've already taken steps to try to shore up the ringgit. For example, they've compelled exporters to convert about 75 percent of proceeds into the ringgit. This should help boost reserves," Salmon said. "We've seen a significant decline in reserves in the last 18 months, but they'll be a lot more cautious in setting policy over the next year as a result of this fear of capital outflows."

He doesn't expect Malaysia's central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), to move on rates until around the end of 2017, when he expects a hike.

"We've got base effects coming out of inflation, higher oil prices and also with the Fed likely to move a couple of times this year, clearly they won't want to see interest rate differentials narrow too much to stoke fears of capital outflows," he said.