KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — The ringgit has staged a strong comeback, rising from around the 4.70 level against the United States dollar a few years ago to the 3.90 level currently, making it one of Asia’s best-performing currencies, said World Bank lead economist for Malaysia Apurva Sanghi.
At 4.15pm, the ringgit was traded at 3.9135 against the US dollar.
He said that Malaysia’s economy is performing well, underpinned by solid economic growth, low inflation, and rising real wages.
“A strong ringgit is helping to bring down prices of imported food items such as onions, cabbage, and rice,” Apurva said in an X (formerly Twitter) post today.
He added that tourism has been a surprising bright spot for the country, stressing the need for Malaysia to maximise value per visitor through experience-led tourism, such as the Mulu Cave tour in Sarawak.
Apurva also highlighted concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) and employment, noting that about half of Malaysian workers face a high risk of automation, while around a quarter are exposed to generative AI.
“Job losses are real, but history shows that broad technological waves also create new jobs, much like the Internet era of the 1990s.
“Back then, few could have predicted that some of the most desirable jobs would eventually emerge in companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google,” he said.
Early AI-era roles are already emerging, including AI trainers, data curators, and prompt engineers, while “human-touch” jobs such as elder care could see strong, rising returns.
“For an ageing Malaysia, this represents a wide-open and underexplored opportunity,” Apurva said.
