Ringgit Falls for a Fifth Day Ahead of Singapore Exports Data

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s ringgit fell for a fifth straight day on concern economic growth is slowing in the nation’s export markets. Government bonds declined.

Singapore, the second-largest destination for Malaysian shipments, will report on Dec. 16 that exports shrank for a third consecutive month in November, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of shares retreated for a second day after the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee refrained from taking additional action to bolster growth while citing risks to the global economy.

“There’s no supporting news from Europe and from the FOMC,” said Akira Banno, a treasury adviser at Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “Global growth is weakening” and the ringgit may drop to 3.20 today, he predicted.

The ringgit fell 0.4 percent to 3.1875 per dollar as of 4:28 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency reached 3.1908 earlier, the weakest level since Nov. 29.

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports contracted 1.2 percent from a year earlier in November after shrinking 16.2 percent in October, according to the Bloomberg survey.

The yield on the Malaysian government’s 3.434 percent bonds due August 2014 increased one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 3.07 percent, according to Bursa Malaysia.

--Editors: Ven Ram, James Regan

To contact the reporter on this story: Lilian Karunungan in Singapore at lkarunungan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net.