Surprise China lending rate cut drags ringgit lower
Its central bank slashes the one-year medium-term lending facility rate by 15 basis points to 2.5%.Bernama - 15 Aug 2023, 7:24pm
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit ended lower against the US dollar following China’s unexpected lending rate cut today.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) unexpectedly slashed the one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) rate by 15 basis points to 2.5% from 2.65% today.
The Chinese yuan and ringgit are closely correlated. Therefore, any weakening of the yuan will have a direct bearing on the ringgit.
“We have seen the dollar-ringgit pair depreciating to RM4.6335,” he told Bernama.
At 6pm, the local note fell to 4.6335/4.6385 against the US dollar compared with 4.6140/4.6175 yesterday.
The ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.
It rose against the Japanese yen to 3.1830/3.1867 from 3.1832/3.1858 yesterday, fell vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.8966/5.9030 from 5.8575/5.8619 and was easier versus the euro to 5.0690/5.0745 from 5.0519/5.0557 previously.
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The local unit was traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.
The ringgit inched up against the Thai baht at 13.0908/13.1105 from 13.1173/13.1332 yesterday but slid against the Philippine peso to 8.15/8.16 from 8.11/8.13.
It was lower vis-a-vis the Singapore dollar to 3.4155/3.4197 from 3.4064/3.4095 at Monday’s close and declined versus the Indonesian rupiah to 301.9/302.4 from 301.2/301.6 previously.
