![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ringgit3-300x300.jpg\")
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KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5<\/strong>: The plummeting value of the ringgit is like a case of\u00a0d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/span>, with continued depreciation despite rising crude oil prices and so-called \u2018fairly strong export growth\u2019, a DAP lawmaker said today.<\/p>\n DAP Publicity chief Tony Pua in a statement today said the ringgit\u2019s depreciation has continued despite pundits predicting its recovery for the past three years. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMost pundits are telling us that the ringgit is undervalued and will recover by the second half of this year.\u00a0 <\/span>PublicInvest Research said the ringgit will recover to average between 4.10 and 4.15 for 2015 against the US Dollar, which is currently trading at 4.48.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak would similarly like you to believe that the ringgit will recover. But didn\u2019t they all say the same thing last year?\u00a0 <\/span>Or for the that matter, the year before?\u201d said Pua.<\/span><\/p>\n Najib in December had said that the government is confident that the ringgit will recover, as it is due to speculation by outsiders and the uncertainties in the United States that the ringgit dropped, and not because the ringgit is weak.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Prime Minister also told us way back in January 2015 that the ringgit will bounce back from the then five-year low versus the US dollar as \u201cMalaysia’s financial market is sufficiently robust\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Believe it or not, the ringgit was then trading at 3.60 to the Dollar, which now seemed like a parallel universe away,\u201d Pua said.<\/span><\/p>\n Pua added that although oil prices were blamed for the drop in the ringgit in 2015, the subsequent rise in oil prices did not result in the recovery of the ringgit.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Ringgit suffered more because we were an oil-exporting nation.\u00a0 <\/span>As the price of global crude collapsed from US$102.10 in January 2014 to US$60.70 (Dec 2014) to US$36.57 (Dec 2015), it is almost understandable that the Ringgit would be disproportionately pummelled. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe pundits had predicted that the Ringgit would recover with the recovery of oil prices last year.\u00a0 <\/span>They were indeed spot on in their prediction of higher oil prices with the Brent crude trading at US$55 a barrel by December 2016.\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately, despite the oil price reversal, the Ringgit value worsened significantly. How was that even possible?\u201d questioned Pua.<\/span><\/p>\n Pua pointed out that then-Bank Negara Zeti Aziz told an international audience that the Ringgit was \u201csignificantly undervalued\u201d as our \u201cexport growth remains fairly strong\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cExcept it wasn\u2019t. Conventional economic theory tells us that as our currency gets depreciated, our goods become cheaper and consequently the demand for them increases.\u00a0 <\/span>A robust increase of the export of our goods and services would in turn increase the demand for our currency and hence provide a strong platform for the recovery of our ringgit and economy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut the government\u2019s own statistics tell us that our exports barely eked out a gain.\u00a0 <\/span>The 2016\/2017 Economic Report published in October 2016 tells us that our Gross Exports for January to August 2016 grew by only 1.1%, compared to 1.6% in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMore specifically, the electrical and electronics exports, the pride of our manufacturing industry, grew by only 2.2%, a substantial decline from 7.4% in 2015.\u00a0 <\/span>While 2.2% might have been just about acceptable under normal economic circumstances, the number is pathetic given the depreciation the Ringgit suffered,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Pua said there was even worse news: the Department of Statistics disclosed last month that our exports declined 3.0% and 8.6% for the months of September and October respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question that our economy is suffering from something chronic which needs immediate treatment.\u00a0 <\/span>Alarm bells should have been blaring deafeningly in Putrajaya but all we get is Ministers with their heads in the sand,\u201d he added. – The Rocket<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5: The plummeting value of the ringgit is like a case of\u00a0d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, with continued depreciation despite rising crude oil prices and so-called \u2018fairly strong export growth\u2019, a DAP lawmaker said today. DAP Publicity chief Tony Pua in a statement today said the ringgit\u2019s depreciation has continued despite pundits predicting its recovery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13582,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13576\/revisions\/13582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}