The ringgit’s movement will remain volatile moving forward, as emerging currencies watch closely any possibility of changes in US trade policies, with Donald Trump having won the presidential election.

Maybank Investment Bank’s group ehief economist Suhaimi Ilias said currently, the key factors influencing currencies, including the ringgit to the US dollar is the uncertainty of politics and policies.

“Right now, we are trying to decipher and decode the policies that are going to be adopted by the president-elect.

“For the emerging market, the main issue is US trade, fiscal and monetary policies going forward,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Malaysia Statistics Conference (MyStat) 2016, in Kuala Lumpur today.

Suhaimi said policies and political factors would continue to be a key theme going into next year, as negotiations for Britain leaving the European Union pact, is expected to begin soon.

“We will also see quite a number of elections taking place in Europe,” he added.

He said Malaysia had to appreciate the fact that despite all the noises creating volatility in the currency market, the fundamentals of the economy remained positive, with recent gross domestic product growth picking up after five quarters of a slowdown.

“We also see the economy still growing. We still have a current account surplus, albeit smaller, with the government remaining committed to fiscal consolidation,” Suhaimi added.

Themed ‘Strengthening Statistical Usage for Decisions and Innovation’, MyStats 2016 is aimed at providing a platform to discuss and promote greater usage of statistics in decision making and innovation.

The one-day conference will bring together key speakers who are experts in the field of statistics compilation, as well as users of statistics, to discuss various topics confronting the compilation and its application.

- Bernama