No pegging ringgit to US$, state funds to be used to lift stocks

Johari: ‘Pegging (the ringgit to the dollar) is out of the question.’

LIMA: Malaysia will use its state funds to put a floor under the country’s battered stock market, though currency intervention and interest rate hikes are ruled out as tools to keep sharp falls in the ringgit in check, its Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said.

The world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas has been hit by the collapse in global crude prices that added to the pains of an economy grappling with mounting household debt.