KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has agreed to share its confidential data on its net foreign exchange purchases and sales with the US Treasury, as part of continued cooperation between both authorities on macroeconomic and currency matters.

BNM said it will disclose its net purchase or sale of forex in the market on a six-month aggregated basis with a three-month lag, according to a joint statement by BNM and the US Treasury on Tuesday.

This comes after BNM and the US Treasury Department reaffirmed a commitment to avoid manipulating exchange rates or the international monetary system to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

BNM and the US Treasury Department also agreed that any macroprudential or capital flow measures should not be used to influence exchange rates for competitive purposes.

Meanwhile, they also agreed that government investment entities, including pension funds, will invest abroad only for risk-adjusted returns and portfolio diversification, and not to affect exchange rates for competitive purposes.

Both parties also noted that foreign exchange interventions should only be undertaken to address excessive volatility or disorderly exchange rate conditions.

Beyond its private disclosures with the US, BNM has also committed to disclose forex dealings publicly, but only biannually on a 12-month aggregated basis.

Forex reserve data and forward positions will also be disclosed publicly on a monthly basis, it noted.

Back in May 2019, Malaysia was placed on the US currency manipulation watchlist as its net purchase of foreign currency was below the requisite 2% of gross domestic product.

It was dropped from the watchlist in November 2024.

At the time of writing, the ringgit appreciated 0.36% against the US dollar to 4.196.

Year to date, the local note is up 6.53% versus the greenback, ahead of regional peers.

The Singaporean dollar has appreciated 5.55% against the US dollar this year, followed by the Thai baht with 5.07%. Laggards included the Vietnamese dong with a depreciation of 3.17%, Indonesian rupiah (-3.03%) and Philippine peso (-2.18%).