Singapore dollar continues to lag behind ringgit: Bloomberg

The countries’ economic fortunes are diverging.

The ringgit has gained 4 percent to 2.53 per Singapore dollar since reaching a 16-year low of 2.63 in February, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Malaysia’s five-year government bonds offer investors a yield almost three times that available on the city-state’s similar debt after Zeti Akhtar Aziz became Southeast Asia’s first central bank governor to raise borrowing costs this year.

Malaysia’s $312 billion economy expanded 6.4 percent in the three months through June, the fastest pace in six quarters, the government reported last week.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s growth is trailing at 2.4 percent. The currency, which is used as the city-state’s key monetary policy tool, climbed 0.5 percent versus the greenback in the past three months, ranking it fifth among the 31 exchange rates tracked by Bloomberg and behind the ringgit’s 1.8 percent gain.

View the full report here.