Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz said yesterday the value of ringgit would go up once 1MDB and other political issues were solved.
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In a statement, 1MDB said it was “disappointed” that Zeti singled it out for the ringgit’s problems at a conference on Monday.
Historically, the sovereign fund said, there is never once has one company been linked in such a way to the value of the ringgit.
The ringgit added to yesterday (Sept 21)’s decline after the New York Times reported the US Justice Department has started an investigation into allegations of corruption associated with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and people close to him, spurring a surge in debt insurance costs.
“Tan Sri Zeti will be aware that 1MDB has consistently met, with no default, its interest service and principal repayment obligations, to both foreign and domestic lenders”, 1MDB said.
1MDB today denied that the 1MDB issue was the cause for the ringgit’s devaluation. The ringgit is already Asia’s worst-performing currency in 2015 as falling Brent crude prices weigh on the oil exporter’s earnings.
She said BNM’s investigation into possible contraventions on approvals granted to 1MDB has been completed and the findings have been submitted to the Attorney General’s Chambers.
Zeti also said the public has the right to get answers to the controversy surrounding 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion donation made to Najib’s private bank accounts for the sake of greater transparency in governance.
“However, their window of opportunity to raise [interest] rates has closed for the moment due to [global] uncertainty, and they didn’t want to generate more instability”, she told reporters at an economics update panel session in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Mr Najib chairs the advisory board of the state investment company and has resisted calls from ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to step down over the fund’s performance as it amassed about RM42 billion (S$13.9 billion) of debt in less than five years.
“In this day and age, it must be noted that there’s no place in this planet that anyone can actually hide, because the world has come together”, Zeti said.
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“They will come together to track down any irregular type of activities”.
