Ringgit Expected To Surge To 3.80 In Near Term -- PM

IPOH (Perak, Malaysia) 15 Mac (Bernama) -- The ringgit is expected to surge to 3.80 against the US dollar in the near term, Najib Razak said. The Prime Minister said his optimism emanated from positive indicators like the nation's strong economic performance, as well as the country's export value of more than RM80 billion in the first quarter of this year. "Our currency Wednesday dropped slightly to 3.90 from 3.89 (against the US dollar). InsyaAllah, in the near term it may rise to 3.80. “In terms of currency value, ours is among the best performing currencies as several months ago the ringgit had weakened to 4.49. But it will surge to 3.80 soon," he said when addressing the Prime Minister’s Budget 2018 with People-Civil Servants programme attended by over 5,000 people, here Thursday. This is the fourth edition of the programme in Najib’s quest to share the country's success stories and explain various government policies that had been and will be implemented. Addressing the audience, Najib said the government did not intend to reduce the number of civil servants in the country now at 1.62 million people. He took a swipe at the political opposition, saying they were often seen to criticise the civil servants with all kinds of allegations. “They (the opposition) say they want to reduce the number of civil servants; some of them humiliate civil servants by insulting them. Some of them say they want to reduce the number of civil servants by half. “They do not respect civil servants. For us, civil servants are the important pillars of government. The government will increase the number of civil servants. We have given a special payment of RM1,000 and will give RM500 more soon,” he said drawing applause from the audience. The Prime Minister also touched on the 1Malaysia Public Housing Programme, saying the government planned to sell the estimated 12,000 houses in Perak 30 per cent cheaper. Najib said he was confident Malaysia would continue to advance with the support of civil servants in the country to be among the top 20 countries of the world. He also referred to the fake news on the government leadership circulated on social media, and said this was getting worse. “People will begin to believe the news that is wrong and does not make sense. This is the silly season, all kinds of news will appear. “Previously, it was about 40,000 Bangladeshi workers entering the country, so much so that some people believed it, became angry and criticised the government,” he said. -- BERNAMA