Malaysia Content With New Value of Ringgit

KUALA LUMPUR, 25 July 2005 — Malaysia has said it is content with the new value of the ringgit after dropping the currency’s peg to the dollar, a move which has eased pressure to lower the economic growth forecast for 2005. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the new value of the ringgit — valued at 3.7780 to the dollar after its first day of trading on Friday — was acceptable because it was “very close to the fundamentals”. “So long as it does not fluctuate up and down like a yo-yo, I think the situation today or at the closing time yesterday, to me was certainly acceptable,” Abdullah told reporters late Saturday night. “If there is going to be any change, I hope that it will happen gradually,” he said.