KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali told Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today that the government cannot treat the continuing decline in Malaysia's currency value as "business as usual".

The PKR leader said the ringgit will likely remain weak as long as current uncertainties in the country's political landscape continue to exist.

"The perception is that nothing short of major changes in leadership and the political equation can halt the slide as well as save us from the brink of national disaster," he said in a statement.

"The Prime Minister must therefore stop this charade of pretending that it is business as usual and that he can continue to lead the nation out of the mess by merely dismissing his deputy and appointing new ministers to shore up support for him," he added.

In a post on his blog yesterday, Najib blamed political machinations as among the causes of the ringgit’s decline against the US dollar.

Najib, who is also finance minister, cited this along with factors such as the yuan’s devaluation, falling commodity prices, and the expected US interest rate hike as the main causes of the sharp drop in the ringgit.

“Faced with external factors and challenges including the negative depiction by some certain quarters regarding the country’s economic situation, the latest report by Bank Negara Malaysia today showed economic growth remained stable at a rate of 4.9 per cent in the second quarter.

“I guarantee that the government will try its best to address this with the purpose of stabilising the country’s economy,” Najib wrote.

The ringgit has fallen over 20 per cent against the US dollar this year, and went below RM4 a dollar in recent days.

Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz said, however, that there are no plans to peg the ringgit’s value despite the decline.

Yesterday, she also announced that the country’s economy grew at 4.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year, the slowest expansion since the third quarter of 2013.