The depreciating value of currency in other countries is not as high as in Malaysia, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“ We used to use the ringgit to buy things in southern Thailand, but today the ringgit is rejected because it had depreciated more than the depreciation of the Thai baht,” Mahathir said in an interview with Bloomberg today.

He said that Malaysia’s currency depreciation was caused by the present government’s economic policies, which include the removal of subsidies for fuel, electricity, and sugar, and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Mahathir believed these economic policies had also resulted in a higher cost of living for Malaysians, rising unemployment (especially among graduates), plummeting share prices, and foreign companies preferring to invest in neighbouring countries.

“ People no longer want to invest in Malaysia.

“ The Japanese companies are pulling out and going to Vietnam,” added Mahathir.

He said Malaysians are “now on their own in an environment where costs have gone up tremendously”.

While agreeing that Malaysia’s current economic state is a reflection of the slowdown elsewhere in Asia and the rest of the world, he also stressed that the “internal factors” he had mentioned also played a part in the nation’s slump.

According to The Economist in an August 2015 report, the ringgit had fallen by 9.8 percent against the US dollar – a more significant decline compared to the Thai baht (6.4 percent).