All good things come to an end.
Heads up for those of us who have been leveraging on weak Malaysian ringgit – all good things come to an end. Our causeway has been seeing throngs and throngs of vehicles, taking advantage of the exchange rate for grocery runs and the marginally cheaper cafe-hopping.
This morning, our Singdollar traded at S$1 = RM 3.0948, the lowest the exchange rate has been since the start of this year. The previous low of RM 3.0957 the Singdollar reached was back in January this year.
It’s an expected tragedy, seeing as to how the ringgit has been on a rebound since mid-April and with the recent news warning us of its comeback.
The Malaysian ringgit has clambered slowly aboard the Asian currency rally, advancing against the dollar and spurring flows into equity markets. Global funds have also poured $581 million into Malaysian stocks, strengthening their currency by 0.5%.
That’s a dramatic turnaround, considering how it declined more than 4% and hit decade low this year.
After being the worst performing Asian currency in 2016, Malaysian policy makers introduced a number of new measures to revive interest in the country’s financial markets.
It’s recovery is expected to continue right ahead, with commodity prices recovering and their stock market benchmark, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rising for five straight months.
Against a basket of global currencies, the Malaysian ringgit is currently at its highest in more than five months, recovering from a near 20-year low. Good things come to an end and it’s probably wise to start bidding goodbye to the lucrative exchange rate we were blessed with – no more stretching your dollars across the causeway with cafe-hops and grocery runs.