KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 — The ringgit ended lower against the US dollar as oil prices declined, and the pressure was exacerbated by growing anticipations of an aggressive interest rate hike decision by the United States Federal Reserve tomorrow, said an analyst.

At 6pm, the local currency fell to 4.5585/5595 against the greenback from 4.5495/5515 at yesterday’s close.

OANDA Europe senior market analyst, Craig Erlam said the central banks, including the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the South African Reserve Bank, have been lining up this week to deliver huge rate hikes as the desperate fight against inflation continues.

"The Bank of Japan will also meet on Thursday but the topic of conversation will likely be how to generate sustainable inflation and the spiralling yen,” he said in a note.

At the time of writing, the oil benchmark Brent crude price had dropped 0.16 per cent to US$91.85 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It depreciated against the British pound to 5.2049/2060 from 5.1678/1700 at yesterday’s close and shrank versus the Singapore dollar to 3.2341/2353 from 3.2261/2278 previously.

The local note also fell against the euro to 4.5608/5618 from 4.5372/5392 yesterday and slipped against the Japanese yen to 3.1725/1734 from 3.1706/1724 yesterday. — Bernama