ANWAR Ibrahim has asked Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to table a motion to debate the country’s economic situation at the parliament meeting, which begins next week.

The opposition leader told Ismail Sabri that he was willing to table the motion if the Prime Minister was willing to make way for him to do it.

Anwar made the request in a letter to the Prime Minister.

“I have sent a letter to the Prime Minister who is the leader of the house to take immediate action to resolve the current cost of living crisis and the drastic decline in the value of the Malaysian ringgit which has affected the lives of the public,” the Port Dickson lawmaker said.

The letter dated September 26 was received by the Prime Minister’s office today.

The Pakatan Harapan  chairman said the state of the country’s economy has had an impact on the public and it had to be addressed quickly.

Anwar said the motion could be debated in the first week of the meeting which begins on October 3 and would be days before the Budget 2023 is tabled next Friday (October 7)

This morning the ringgit opened lower against the US dollar as the greenback continued its bullish run on the back of an aggressive US monetary policy stance to tame inflation, a dealer said.

At 9am, the local currency fell to 4.6045/6085 against the greenback from yesterday’s 4.6030/6045.

Economist have projected the ringgit will continue to decline and will see it hit RM4.885 against the dollar as it did during the Asian financial crisis in 1998, which at that time led to the Mahathir administration pegging it at RM3.80.

However, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz refuted the suggestion that Malaysia was experiencing an economic crisis just because the ringgit was trading at a low level against the United States dollar.

He explained that the ringgit’s performance should be viewed holistically, not just in comparison with the US dollar, as the local note has also strengthened against other currencies.

“While the ringgit has depreciated by 7.5% against the US dollar since the beginning of 2022, many currencies in the region and developed countries have also fallen against the greenback.

“For example, the Japanese yen slid to 19.2%, the lowest in 24 years, the pound sterling has dropped 14.4%, the lowest in 37 years, and the euro has weakened by 11.7%, the lowest in 20 years,” Tengku Zafrul said in a video posted on his social media page.

Although the currencies of these countries have declined in value against the US dollar, they, including the European Union and Japan, are not experiencing an economic crisis, he said. – September 27, 2022.