KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — The ringgit eased against the US dollar today on lack of demand due to weak economic sentiment over a spike in the country’s unemployment rate, said an analyst.
At 6pm, the ringgit was traded at 4.2780/2830 from yesterday’s close of 4.2700/2790.
The Department of Statistics in its Key Statistics of Labour Force, Malaysia, April 2020 recently reported that the unemployment rate spiked to 5.0 per cent as the unemployed persons went up 48.8 per cent to 778,800 persons compared to a year ago.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the closure of operations of most of businesses during the movement control order (MCO), which was extended until April 2020, resulted in the loss of employment and job seekers could hardly find jobs.
He noted that the working population decreased 156,400 persons (-1.0 per cent) year-on-year to 14.93 million persons in April.
On the political front, the analyst said news that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was considering a snap election, possibly in March next year, to seek a fresh five-year mandate from the people, also weighed down on investors’ sentiment.
Against a basket of major currencies, the ringgit was traded higher except for the Japanese yen.
It improved versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0664/0709 from 3.0713/0770 and strengthened to 5.3616/3692 from 5.4058/4151 against the British pound yesterday.
The local currency gained against the euro to 4.8033/8107 from 4.8388/8480, but fell versus the Japanese yen to 3.9844/9894 from 3.9765/9860 yesterday. — Bernama
