Bank Negara Malaysia Assistant Governor Adnan Zaylani replied "Yes" when asked by reporters on Friday whether the central back was intervening in the foreign-exchange market, Bloomberg News reported. The ringgit has weakened by around five per cent since last week's surprise presidential election victory by US billionaire Donald Trump. But Adnan poured water on the possibility that Malaysia could implement capital controls to shield the ringgit, calling speculation over such measures "baseless" and saying they would ultimately be damaging. It has been widely speculated that the central bank has regularly intervened on behalf of the ringgit over that span, eroding its international reserves. Economic growth came in at 4.3 per cent in the third quarter, snapping a string of five straight quarters in which the pace of expansion slowed, Bank Negara said last week.

Source: The Nation Bangkok November 18, 2016 06:18 UTC