The ringgit slipped back to 4.00 level, after briefly touching the 3.99 in early trading today, a dealer said.

At 5pm, the local note was quoted at 4.0080/0130 against the greenback from 4.0375/0415 yesterday.

The dealer said the ringgit improved slightly today, following the better gross domestic product of 4.9 per cent for the second quarter of 2015 as compared with 5.6 per cent in the first quarter.

Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, said the central bank would not peg the ringgit or introduce capital controls to curtail the depreciation of the local currency.

This helped to lift the ringgit briefly.

The ringgit has slumped more than 12 percent this year, making it the worst performing emerging Asian currency.

Hong Leong Bank Senior Manager for Bond and Economic Research, Choong Yin Pheng, told Bernama the local unit remained vulnerable as investors lost confidence due to falling commodity prices and after China's move to devalue its currency, succumbing to selling pressure in regional currencies including ringgit.

It fell against the Singapore dollar to 2.8725/8765 from 2.8619/8659 on Wednesday. The local note was higher against the yen at 3.2172/2215 from 3.2388/2431 yesterday.

The ringgit strengthened against the pound sterling to 6.2561/2655 from 6.2876/2950 yesterday, and went up against the euro to 4.4561/4625 from 4.4941/4998 previously.

- Bernama