Malaysia’s currency woes spur financial stress, political discontent. Will the ringgit rise again?
![](https://onecms-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--7X4ne9mo--/f_auto,q_auto/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200/v1/mediacorp/cna/image/2024/05/03/ins_ep5_clean_hkg10187709.jpg?itok=S7_FmvMH)
One of the many Malaysians who is feeling the pinch is professional videographer Shunmugam Karuppannan, who also covers food prices.
These days, the 50- yr- old thinks double about taking his family to a restaurant, yet if they ate out just once a month earlier.
The ringgit has fallen, and as Malaysia imports about 60 % of its food, this has led to imported inflation, to the extent that his nine-year-old daughter is now attending college.
” Every day I’d give her RM2. And she did n’t tell me anything about ( prices being ) hiked up in the canteen”, he recounted.
After a few days of her skipping meals, he “got to know that the amount, RM2, of mee ho or whatever … had gone to Stock 3”.
The weakening ringgit has a wide range of income effects. Elliza Abdul Rahim, 54, who belongs to the M40 party, or the end 40 per cent of salary workers, has also become more price- conscious.