THE Malaysian ringgit has been performing well and will strengthen, despite remarks by the opposition on its weakening value.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said the ringgit had performed better than the currencies of many other large commodity exporter countries, and forecasters had predicted that it will regain its strength.

Najib said the positivity of the ringgit value would not be highlighted by the opposition or a former leader.

“You won’t hear about all this from the opposition or a former leader. A former leader who is obsessed by power and wanted to continue ruling long into his retirement, and who blamed me for his son’s loss in the race to be Umno’s vice-president in 2013.

“I had refused to conform to his ways as I firmly believed that Malaysia needed a new vision, away from the old ways that had led to the serious legacy problems that we had faced before and which were damaging the people’s welfare,” said Najib in his blog today.

Najib said the value of the ringgit appreciated within the 2011-2013 time period as global funds moved to countries such as Malaysia during the recession in 2008-2009 to gain higher returns.

This was because the United States reduced interest rates as it was suffering the effects of a recession.

“However, when the US started to recover from their recession, they started raising interest rates again.

“This, coupled with the drastic drop in commodity prices, caused our ringgit to weaken to its current value, which is now another topic that the opposition uses to criticise the government.

“It is strange that the opposition is now claiming that the current weaker ringgit is a sign that Malaysia is going bankrupt, when in GE13, the opposition also alleged that Malaysia was going bankrupt despite the ringgit having appreciated 30% against the US dollar,” said Najib.

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli had previously said the ringgit was at its worst state, compared with other Asian currencies such as those of Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea.

He also said the value had decreased rapidly ever since news of the misappropriation of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s funds was reported by the Wall Street Journal. – October 24, 2017.