KL maintains currency peg

KL maintains currency peg

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Malaysia will not change its currency's peg to the U.S. dollar any time soon because the capital controls have helped to strengthen the country's economy, a senior finance official said.

Deputy Finance Minister Shafie Mohamad Saleh said late Thursday that there was no reason to review the fixed peg since it had helped boost the country's trade surplus and foreign exchange reserves, the national news agency Bernama reported.

Malaysia pegged its currency, the ringgit, at 3.8 to the U.S. dollar and banned offshore trading of the currency in September 1998 as part of exchange controls intended to protect the ringgit.

The restrictions were intended to keep money inside the country and insulate Malaysia from the Asian financial crisis.