KUALA LUMPUR (March 20): The ringgit opened slightly higher against the US dollar on Wednesday ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia Malaysia’s (BNM) Annual Report 2023 and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) decision on interest rates.

At 9am, the ringgit rose to 4.7335/7400 against the greenback from Tuesday’s close of 4.7350/7390.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said market players are looking forward to hearing the latest assessment and the forecast for 2024, as well as the outcome of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting which concludes on Wednesday.

“For the BNM Annual Report, market participants would zero in on the details, especially on the gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation forecast for this year.

“At the current juncture, the projection for GDP growth stands at 4% to 5% while for inflation rate, it would range between 2.1% and 3.6% for 2024.

“We shall see if there would be any changes to this parameter taking into consideration the latest data points and policy changes globally and domestically,” he told Bernama.

Besides, Mohd Afzanizam said the centre of attention will also shift towards the FOMC meeting with most economists projecting the Fed Fund Rate (FFR) to stay put at 5.50%.

“What the markets are interested in is the timeline for the first rate cut. Last December, the Fed staff projected the FFR to be at 4.6% in 2024, which translates into a possible cut of around 75 basis points from the prevailing level,” he said.

The ringgit was traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.

It increased vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.1310/1358 from 3.1420/1451 on Tuesday. It, however, slid against the British pound to 6.0191/0274 from 5.9992/6.0043 and eased versus the euro to 5.1425/1495 from 5.1318/1361 previously.

Meanwhile, the ringgit traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

It was lower versus the Thai baht at 13.1184/1411 from 13.1171/1354 at Tuesday’s close, edged down against the Singapore dollar to 3.5261/5315 from 3.5249/5281 and depreciated vis-a-vis the Philippine peso to 8.48/8.49 compared with 8.46/8.48 previously.

However, the local note inched up against the Indonesian rupiah to 301.1/301.6 from 301.2/301.6.