KEPONG MP Lip Eng today questioned the silence of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz over the ringgit’s drop last week to its lowest value in decades.

“The ringgit is at its lowest point in 24 years; if this isn’t an economic crisis, what is?” Lim said in a statement.

He said the ministers can no longer afford to lie to the people. 

“It is time for the government to be upfront and tell us if we are now in a recession,

“They must also tell the nation how to ride out the economic storm rather than let our country still run on ‘auto pilot’ mode,” he said.

Lim said a depreciating ringgit will surely raise the prices of imported goods; the inflation rate will also rise steeply. 

“This will affect both the middle-and low-income groups,” he said.

He said the pandemic had caused many of the middle class to slip to the rungs of the bottom 40% earners.

“This is a danger that if nothing concrete is done the economic crisis (may worsen),” he said.

On Wednesday, ringgit opened at its lowest against the US dollar since the Asian financial crisis in 1998, as more investors shifted to safe havens due to the uncertain global economic outlook. 

The local currency fell to 4.5010/5035 against the greenback from the previous day’s close of 4.4970/4500. 

Last month, Tengku Zafrul said the government had no plans to peg the ringgit to the US dollar as such a move is fraught with risk and is too high a trade-off, requiring Malaysia to follow the American monetary policy. – September 10, 2022.