Report: Singapore dollar hit all-time high against ringgit yesterday

 

The Singapore dollar hit an all-time high against the Malaysian ringgit yesterday (May 23), Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.

The Singapore dollar reached a record high of RM3.1964 at 1.48pm yesterday, largely due to strength in the Singapore dollar, before easing to RM3.1950 later in the day, the news portal said, quoting MonFX’s head of FX analysis, Simon Harvey.

"There wasn’t one individual headline-catching event, but instead the technicalities of Singapore’s monetary policy that created this all-time high," he was quoted as saying, adding that sentiment around China also helped.

Harvey said news that US President Joe Biden was weighing cutting tariffs on Chinese goods helped lift the yuan to its highest since May 5.

"With the yuan holding the largest share in Singapore’s S$NEER basket, the rally in yuan dragged the Singapore dollar higher too as currency traders looked to offset the depreciation in the Singapore dollar relative to yuan with other currencies.

"This saw the Singapore dollar strengthen against other major trade partners, including the US dollar (+0.49 percent), Malaysian ringgit (+0.13 percent), Hong Kong dollar (+0.47 percent) and Japanese yen (+0.05 percent), such that the S$NEER exchange rate continued to drive higher in line with (Monetary Authority of Singapore - MAS') preference,” he said.

As of 9.01am, the ringgit stood at 3.1925/1955 against a Singapore dollar.

RM20 note

MAS, the republic’s central bank, formulates monetary policy by setting a path for the S$NEER - the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate - policy band to ensure price stability in the medium term.

Singapore tightened its monetary policy stance last month, which builds on the policy moves in October 2021 and January 2022, aiming to slow inflation and help ensure medium-term price stability.

It was announced yesterday that MAS Core Inflation rose to 3.3 percent on a year-on-year basis in April 2022 from 2.9 percent in March, driven by higher inflation for food, retail & other goods, as well as electricity & gas.

The jump in April was reportedly the highest level since February 2012.

- Bernama