KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The ringgit ended the last day of October easier against the US dollar as investors remained cautious ahead of the key central banks’ monetary policy statements this week, an analyst said.

At 6pm, the local note depreciated to 4.7260/7300 against the greenback from last Friday’s close of 4.7225/7275.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Firdaos Rosli said the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and Bank of England are expected to announce the widely anticipated 75 basis points (bps) hike while Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would likely settle with a 25 bps increase on Thursday.

"The latter’s hike will also signal the Malaysian economy’s performance in the third quarter of 2022 (3Q2022), which will be unveiled a week later (Friday, Nov 11, 2022),” he told Bernama.

Furthermore, he said investors would likely keep a close watch on the incoming US jobs data, which would set the tone for Federal Open Market Committee’s December 2022 meeting.

"As the United Kingdom’s latest inflation print has surpassed double-digit in September, the Eurozone is expected to follow suit in its forthcoming inflation announcement today.

"As global oil prices remain elevated, inflation is expected to be hot during winter,” he said.

Firdaos said investors are expected to remain cautious for the week as it is inevitable that both central banks from the US and Malaysia would tighten their monetary policy given still elevated core inflation amid the latest inflation print.

"As such, we foresee the weekly range trading to be between RM4.72 to RM4.74,” he said.

The core inflation for the US stood at 6.6 per cent in September against 6.3 per cent in August while Malaysia recorded four per cent core inflation in September versus 3.8 per cent in August.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies except the British pound.

The local note rose against the Japanese yen to 3.1833/1863 from 3.1976/2012, appreciated versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3409/3439 from 3.3436/3474 and strengthened against the euro to 4.7000/7040 from 4.7008/7058 at Friday’s close.

However, it fell vis-a-vis the British pound at 5.4647/4693 from 5.4455/4513 on Friday. — Bernama