Ringgit Rebounds Against US Dollar as Venezuela Crisis Fears Ease

The ringgit closed higher against the US dollar on Tuesday, January 6, rising to 4.0445/0495 from Monday’s 4.0695/0745, as initial safe-haven bids for the greenback subsided. IPPFA Sdn Bhd’s director of investment strategy and country economist, Mohd Sedek Jantan, told Bernama that markets reassessed the US-Venezuela political episode as disruptive but economically contained, with no significant impact on global growth, energy supply, or financial conditions.

Ringgit Rebounds

As US yields and the Dollar Index (DXY) weakened, high-carry and high-beta currencies like the ringgit rebounded. Mohd Sedek described the divergence as evidence of a short-lived risk-off shock rather than sustained deleveraging.

The ringgit traded mostly higher against major currencies, appreciating versus the Japanese yen (2.5865/5899) and euro (4.7373/7432), but slipping against the British pound (5.4742/4810). Against ASEAN peers, it strengthened versus the Philippine peso and Thai baht but edged lower against the Indonesian rupiah and Singapore dollar.

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