Is a current top ten hit for J P Cooper. Sin Chew says today that the Ringgit will trade at RM4.20 by year end, but even then it will be trading above its fair.
What Sin Chew is saying that only around or after September, can we expect the Ringgit to trade at RM4.20 against the Dollar, but why is the Ringgit trading even then above its fair value, the paper does not say.
Anyway, this is Sin Chew's story. Read Below :
- The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) Socio-Economic Research Center executive director Lee Heng Guie predicted that the ringgit would be stronger this year than in 2016.
He also predicted that the ringgit would strengthen from RM4.49 to the greenback at end-2016 to between RM4.20 and RM4.40 this year.
"As a matter of fact, the current ringgit value has failed to reflect its fundamentals, which should be between RM3.80 and RM4.00 to the Dollar.
"However, due to external resistance and negative market sentiment, the local unit has remained undervalued."
He went on to say that ringgit remains vulnerable and its value would be affected by fluctuation in cash flow, the anticipated interest rate hike in the US, Bank Negara's rate policy as well as domestic inflationary pressure.
Still challenging
Lee said in a quarterly economic tracker briefing at ACCCIM on Wednesday that the ringgit suffered 18.6% depreciation in 2015 as a result of the 1MDB scandal and another 4.3% last year due to uncertainties arising from the election of Donald Trump as the US president.
He said the effectiveness of BNM's efforts in boosting ringgit demand, strengthening ringgit in the onshore market and capping the foreign currency retention of export proceeds will only show up during the first half of this year.
"I think the first half of 2017 will remain challenging for the ringgit as the market will be watching Donald Trump's economic policies."
