KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit was decrease towards the dollar in early commerce on Friday despite the persevering with downward bias of the US dollar after discouraging gross home (GDP) print forward of the Fed’s launch of the inflation gauge for March, tonight.
At 9am, the ringgit eased barely to 4.7770/4.7825 towards the dollar from Thursday’s shut of 4.7745/4.7775.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid mentioned US GDP first quarter (1Q2024) got here in decrease than anticipated at 1.6% versus a consensus forecast of two.5%, suggesting that the economic system slowed within the first three months of this yr.
This led to the US Dollar Index (DXY) decline to 105.598 factors.
In Q1 2024, the non-public consumption expenditure (PCE) worth index was larger at 3.4% from 1.8% within the prior quarter, indicating sticky inflationary pressures.
“So, there are combined alerts on US charges however the slowing economic system was fairly evident. On that observe, we will count on the ringgit to be nicely supported in step with the decline on DXY,” he added.
The ringgit was largely decrease towards a basket of main currencies.
It rose vis-a-vis the British pound to five.9732/5.9800 from 5.9748/5.9786 yesterday however slipped versus the Japanese yen to three.0693/3.0730 from 3.0677/3.0698 and vis-a-vis the euro to five.1243/5.1302 from 5.1211/5.1243 beforehand.
The ringgit traded simpler towards Asean currencies.
The native foreign money depreciated versus the Thai baht to 12.9010/12.9208 towards 12.8939/12.9087 from yesterday’s shut and was decrease versus the Philippine peso at 8.27/8.28 from 8.26/8.27.
It declined vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 295.1/295.5 from 294.9/295.2 on Thursday and slid towards the Singapore dollar to three.5141/3.5184 from 3.5120/3.5144.
