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Pressure mounts on Malaysia to review ringgit peg

AFP, Kuala Lumpur
A Malaysia's seven-year peg of its currency, the ringgit, to the US dollar is coming under increasing pressure for a review amid fears of rising inflation and speculation that the yuan will be revalued, economists said.
Even the architect of the policy, former premier Mahathir Mohamad, is calling for a change to ensure Malaysia's economy remains competitive.
Economists expect a review of the peg of 3.80 ringgit to the dollar, fixed since September 1998, to be made in the second half of the year and that Malaysia should benchmark its ringgit to a basket of currencies.
"There is pressure on the government to review the ringgit peg due to fears of an imported inflation," Suhaimi Saidi, an economist with the local research house
AmSecurities, told AFP.
Speculation that China may adjust its own currency peg to the dollar and allow the yuan to rise has also lent strength to the belief that Malaysia might follow suit, economists said.
Mahathir, who imposed the peg as part of capital controls to shield the economy from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, has recently joined others in calling for a review of the system as a sharp decline in the dollar's value has made Malaysian imports costlier.
But Mahathir said the value of the ringgit should be decided by the government and not by external parties.
"We have to determine it ourselves and not leave it to market forces as it will be exposed to manipulation," he said Tuesday.
Suhaimi said the ringgit was estimated to be undervalued by about five to 10 percent, judging
from the weakening of the greenback.
"It could be revalued between 3.42 to 3.60 per US dollar," he said.
Standard Chartered bank economist Joseph Tan, who is based in neighbouring Singapore, said the time was ripe for Malaysia to review the ringgit peg, given its position of strength.
"The fundamentals of Malaysia's economy are strong enough to withstand such a shift," he was quoted as saying by the Business Times newspaper over the weekend.
Tan said Malaysia should shift to a managed float of the ringgit against a basket of currencies from its top trading partners.
But it was necessary for Kuala Lumpur to impose a temporary exit tax to safeguard the financial system from the sudden drain of liquidity, he said.