KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — Malaysia’s ringgit fell, leading losses in Asia, amid a US budget stalemate that raises the risk of the first government shutdown in 17 years.

Sovereign bonds were little changed.

The House of Representatives voted 231-192 yesterday to stop many of the Affordable Care Act’s central provisions for one year, tying it to an extension of government funding through Dec 15.

Should the Senate reject the bill today, the government could be shut down from tomorrow.

Malaysian bond yields are likely to rise as inflation accelerates after the authorities cut fuel subsidies this month, according to a Sept 27 report from Barclays Plc analysts led by London-based Christian Keller.

“It looks like we’re not going to get any agreement between the two major parties in the US,” said Khoon Goh, a senior currency strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore.

“So the market is now pricing in a government shutdown from midnight.”

The ringgit declined 1 per cent to 3.2606 per dollar as of 10.11am in Kuala Lumpur, the worst performance among Asia’s 11 most-traded currencies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

It gained 0.7 per cent in September, trimming its quarterly loss to 3.1 per cent.

One-month implied volatility, a measure of expected moves in exchange rates used to price options, rose 56 basis points today to 10.79 per cent.

Fuel Prices

Malaysian consumer prices increased 1.9 per cent in August from a year earlier, after rising 2 per cent in July, the fastest pace in 16 months, according to official figures. The government will announce September data on Oct. 23.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak increased the price of the RON 95 grade of gasoline and of diesel by 20 sen each to RM2.10 and RM2 a liter, respectively, on Sept 3.

The move will help the government save about RM1.1 billion this year and RM3.3 billion annually in the future by reducing state subsidies, he said.

The yield on the 3.48 per cent government notes due March 2023 was steady at 3.77 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The rate fell 32 basis points in September, the biggest monthly drop since the notes were issued in March. It has climbed 14 basis points this quarter. — Bloomberg