Ringgit falls for seventh day, longest stretch since 2013

Malaysia’s ringgit fell for a seventh day in the longest stretch of losses since 2013 after U.S. data added to speculation the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.

The currency weakened beyond 3.7 to the dollar for the first time in seven weeks and the yen tumbled to a 12-year low as reports on U.S. manufacturing and construction spending bolstered the case for Fed tightening. Malaysia has kept borrowing costs unchanged this year, even as some Asian central banks eased monetary policy while the Bank of Japan maintained its stimulus. The greenback has rallied against 14 of the world’s 16 major currencies in the past month.

The ringgit dropped 0.6 percent to 3.7067 as of 10:47 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The yen fell to 125.05 a dollar, the weakest level since December 2002.

“The Fed looks on track to increase interest rates later this year,” said Khoon Goh, a Singapore-based senior foreign- exchange strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “The weakening in the yen toward 125 is placing additional pressure” on the ringgit, he said.

A government report on Friday may show Malaysian exports contracted 6.7 percent in April from a year earlier, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. That would follow a 2.3 percent gain in March and February’s 9.8 percent drop.

The Malaysian currency is likely to move within a 3.67 to 3.72 range this week in volatile trade ahead of U.S. jobs data and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting, both scheduled for Friday, said Christopher Wong, a Singapore-based senior currency analyst at Malayan Banking Bhd.

Government bonds were little changed, with the five-year yield at 3.60 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

At noon today, checks by Astro AWANI showed the Ringgit was trading at 3.6991 to the US Dollar.