There is a debt repayment exercise sometime this month to be performed against the 1MDB Loan. It was claimed earlier that an Abu Dhabi firm will forward abt,... of the top of my head,... 785M USD to help Msia. Subsequently, it was reported that the Abu Dhabi firm is reviewing this commitment.

If the UAE is not going to help Msia, where to get the funds to fulfill this exercise ? And the subsequent exercises, eg coupon payment dates, etc ?

If Msia default this month,... then more turbulence to come.

It is the short-term debts tat I worry about.

The amount of stupidity contained in the single line above is mind boggling..

I remember the news when a hong kong businessman have to wait for people to finish their foods at restaurant so he can pretend to be a client and eat the scrap leftover. Wonderful...

Are Malaysians now currency experts?

By Goh Wei Liang

Today, the Ringgit breached RM4.00 to a dollar.

When I logged in to my Facebook and Twitter accounts, 9 out of 10 posts that appeared on my timeline were slamming the Government on the Ringgit.

To sum it all up, youth who dominate social media today were posting comments as though tomorrow spelt the end for Malaysia.

Just the past month, I observed Malaysians transform from being constitutional experts, to aviation analysts and now to authorities on economics.

Some even go as far as to put the blame on UMNO and Najib. The group Suara Rakyat for instance likes to say “other countries are doing better because UMNO is not there in their country”.

Of course, when you have a narrow, myopic view, you will tend to miss out the fact that over the 5 year period,

• Russian Roubles lost 114% against USD
• Indonesian Rupiah lost 51% against USD
• Indian Rupees lost 38% against USD
• Norwegian Krone lost 37% against USD
• Australian Dollars lost 24% against USD
• Euro lost 20% against USD
• Thai Baht lost 10% against USD

Do I need to go on?
One of the contributing factors has been the drop in oil prices. Crude oil was trading at US$70-80 / bbl (per barrel) a few years ago. Today it has fallen below US$ 50 per bbl.
Also, the US is not our only trading partner and the performance of our Ringgit is not measured against US dollars alone. When we look at the Ringgit,

• we strengthened against Canadian Dollars (2%)
• we strengthened against Indian Rupees (10%)
• we strengthened against Japanese Yen (14%)
• we strengthened against Indonesian Rupiah (18%)

I don’t need to name more currencies, do I?
Understandably, we are quick to feed on negative news and quick to comment like experts on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. That’s how things work these days.

Of course, none of you made reference to 1998 in your comments.

No one remembered the time when the Ringgit crashed to as low as RM4.725 to a dollar on 7 January 1998 (BNM selling rate, over the counter was more than RM4.80). All of you, who were quick to comment about the state of our economy on Facebook, were still in school. So none of you knew, none of you remembered, none of you experienced what happened in 1998 when Anwar Ibrahim was Finance Minister.

Back then

a) People were losing jobs or had difficulty in getting jobs
b) Households were squeezed
b) average lending rate was 12.16%
c) Inflation was close to 3% without subsidy removals.

So before you get upset and vent your anger on Facebook or Twitter, ask yourself how the Ringgit – Dollar exchange rate affects you.

1. Do you shop online from US websites?
2. Are you planning to fly over to US for a holiday?
3. Are you a Malaysian studying in the US?
4. Do you import goods to be resold in Malaysia?
5. Do you buy necessities and food from the US to use here?
6. Do you at all use the US dollar in your daily life?

Only if you answer yes to any of the above, are you affected.

If you did not answer yes to any of the above, what are you shouting and so worried about?

Your salary is still denominated in Ringgit and you don’t buy necessities with US dollars.

Sure, no one can deny that it has some impact on certain segments especially imports and our plans to travel to US, UK etc.
And guys, the international ratings agencies – Fitch, Moody’s and S&P – have all maintained Malaysia’s outlook as stable. There are no economists out there who are saying that Malaysia’s economy will collapse, only politicians are saying this.