KUALA LUMPUR: The pressure on the ringgit vis-a-vis the greenback hopefully will decrease when the United States debt ceiling issue is resolved within the next few days, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.
Based on reports, he said, US President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible”, as the deadline is getting closer.
“With a few more days left (to the deadline), we hope that when the issue has been resolved, the ringgit will not be as it is today,” Ahmad told reporters during an official visit to the Securities Commission headquarters today.
He said the government is waiting to see how the situation unfolds before taking action as the issue is anticipated to be settled in five or six days.
Ahmad disclosed that at a briefing earlier by Securities Commission Malaysia chairman Datuk Seri Dr Awang Adek Hussin, the latter told him that investors who are holding dollars are concerned about the US debt ceiling due to the stalemate.
“If the debt ceiling is raised, the holdings in the US dollar will decrease and the demand will lessen, which will cause ... the ringgit against the US dollar exchange rate to reduce,” Ahmad said.
Based on previous international reports, the US government is expected to run short of money to pay its bills unless Congress acts to raise the debt ceiling by June 5.
On another issue, Ahmad shared that between 2020 and 2022, total complaints made to the commission involving fraud or scams rose by 100% to 1,124 in 2022 from 548 complaints in 2020, with total losses surpassing tens of millions of ringgit. In 2022, close to 60% of total complaints to the commission involved frauds or scams.
