KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — The ringgit has retreated from its gains over the past few days to open lower against the US dollar on Friday despite the weaker greenback, dragged down by the declining oil price, an analyst said.

At 9.03am, the local currency was trading at 4.1800/1830 against the US dollar compared with 4.1750/1775 at yesterday’s close.

Oanda senior market analyst Edward Moya said that crude oil prices edged lower as political pressure grew for the United States to lobby the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (Opec+) to make sure the group hits its quota.

He told Bernama that the short-term outlook for crude oil still has many risks, but optimism is still high.

"The oil market will remain very tight this year and most likely over the next few years as most energy companies are not investing in massive new drilling projects,” he added.

At press time, the benchmark Brent crude oil price fell 0.32 per cent to US$84.20 per barrel.

Meanwhile, at the opening, the ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.

The local unit eased versus the Singapore dollar to 3.1055/1082 from 3.1034/1055 at Thursday’s close and slipped against the Japanese yen to 3.6696/6722 from 3.6450/6472.

It also fell against the euro to 4.7899/7933 from 4.7883/7912 yesterday but strengthened vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7316/7357 from 5.7348/7382 previously. — Bernama