KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The Finance Ministry has claimed that the ringgit has been the region’s best performing currency since April this year, despite reports that it is approaching its fixed exchange rate level of the Asian financial crisis over a decade ago.

The ministry said in a written parliamentary reply that the ringgit had gone up 3.1 per cent in value to the US dollar, primarily due to the recovery in global crude oil prices and aided by a projected delay by the US Federal Reserve to increase interest rates.

“The ringgit also increased in value compared to other regional currencies between 0 per cent and 6.8 per cent,” the ministry said without elaborating.

The ministry, which was responding to a question by BN’s Kota Tinggi MP Datuk Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun Narrashid, stressed that the depreciation of the ringgit since September last year was due to “external factors” such as improving economic prospects in the US and the global crude oil price slump.

It said short-term fluctuations in the ringgit’s value are expected, but noted that the federal government through Bank Negara Malaysia has laid out a policy to contain fluctuations on the foreign exchange (forex).

Putrajaya added that efforts to “develop and deepen” the forex market domestically have provided local businesses some cover from the global instability of exchange rates.

Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that the ringgit slipped 3.9 per cent to 3.7610 per dollar in the past month, Asia’s worst performance.

Analysts surveyed by the business wire lowered their end-2015 projections, with the likelihood of the currency breaching 3.8 is “not a matter of if, but a question of when,” said Jonathan Cavenagh, a currency strategist at Westpac in Singapore.

“Bank Negara’s ability to fight the stronger dollar trend is being diminished somewhat compared to the past few years.”

The ringgit is vulnerable to capital outflows from higher US interest rates as central bank data show global investors hold 32 per cent of the nation’s sovereign bonds, compared with 18 per cent for Thailand.

The slump in Brent crude prompted the government to lower 2015’s growth target to a range of 4.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent in January, from as much as 6 per cent.