KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — The government will never re-peg the ringgit as had been done by a previous administration, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.
Najib who is also finance minister said doing so would be an “unmitigated disaster for our economy” as had been proven by the country’s experience when the ringgit was pegged to the US dollar in the late 1990s.
“Investors and global markets lost confidence in us, and it took a long time to win that back. That was a very heavy cost to the country.
“So we have made it very clear that we would never repeat that measure, trusting that while there may be short term fluctuations, in the longer term the level of the ringgit would reflect the strength of the Malaysian economy,” he said in his keynote speech during Invest Malaysia 2018 here.
He noted there were federal Opposition leaders who touted themselves as economic experts, but said they “don’t understand economics”.
“They talk about us re-pegging the ringgit as though that would be an easy and helpful move. The reality is that this would be an unmitigated disaster for our economy and therefore for the prosperity of our people,” he said.
Najib who is also chairman of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition said that there was a concentrated effort within the country to sabotage the economy for political gain.
He pointed that government critics have repeatedly issued challenges, even using “certain state-owned institutions”, against his administration to suggest the national economy is collapsing.
He conceded his administration had made certain lapses in governance, but stressed that corrective measures are now being taken.
“This is why I ordered one of the most comprehensive and detailed investigations in Malaysia’s corporate history, one that involved multiple lawful authorities, including a bipartisan parliamentary body,” he said.
