BNM to continue rolling out new measures to strengthen country's fundamentals, says governor

LABUAN: The central bank will continue to roll out more new measures to strengthen the country's economic fundamentals, says Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim (pix).
"We will continue to look into the economic situation and introduce more new measures for a deeper, more comprehensive and liquid bond and foreign exchange markets in the future," he told a press conference here today after presenting the Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) Annual Report 2016.
Muhammad was commenting on the strengthening of the local note which stood at RM4.3510 versus the US dollar today.
He attributed the ringgit's appreciation to country's strong economic fundamentals, particularly after several new measures were introduced by the central bank on Dec 2, 2016 and Apr 13, 2017.
The Dec 2 measures included allowing residents, including resident fund managers, to freely and actively hedge their US Dollars and Chinese Renminbi with an exposure up to a limit of RM6 million per client per bank.
On April 13, the central bank announced measures to regulate the short-selling of Malaysian Government Securities, which would be expanded to all resident entities, such as investors and issuers, effective May 2, 2017.
Muhammad expected the demand and supply of the ringgit to be more balanced following the implementation of the new measures.
"The ringgit will reflect the strong economic fundamentals that we have now," he added. — Bernama