KUALA LUMPUR (June 8): The ringgit may advance 4% as the latest measures by Bank Negara Malaysia reduce the risks of holding the currency and the economy improves, a member of the central bank’s financial markets committee said.

The currency could reach 4.1 to the dollar in the second half, said Lee Kok Kwan, who is also a director at lender CIMB Group Holdings. The fair value of the ringgit should be between 3.8 and 4.0, when benchmarked against regional and commodity currencies, said Lee, who accurately predicted in January that the currency will rebound from a 19-year low.

“The macro fundamentals have improved quite a lot, such as GDP and exports," Lee, who is part of the committee tasked to develop strategies for the nation’s bond and currency markets, said in an interview on Wednesday. “Equally as important, the speculative offshore holdings of short-dated ringgit instruments have declined markedly, which eliminates a major source of downside risk to the currency going forward.”

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