KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — The ringgit opened slightly lower against the US dollar ahead of the release of February’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) print.

At 9.05am, the ringgit eased to 4.7390/7430 against the greenback from Friday’s close of 4.7340/7390.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid told Bernama that consensus estimates Malaysia’s inflation rate to be sustained at 1.5 per cent in February.

Last week, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) revised its inflation rate forecast to 2.0-3.5 per cent for 2024, from the previous forecast of 2.1-3.6 per cent.

Despite the revision, Mohd Afzanizam said inflation remained high, giving more reasons for the Overnight Policy Rate to stay unchanged at 3.00 per cent.

He said that based on the Fibonacci retracement, the ringgit’s prevailing supports and resistance levels stand at RM4.7341 and RM4.47481, respectively.

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

It appreciated against the euro to 5.1195/1239 from 5.1203/1257 at Friday’s close but slipped against the British pound to 5.9692/9743 from 5.9582/9645 last week, and depreciated vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.1332/1361 from 3.1223/1258 previously.

The ringgit was also traded easier against other ASEAN currencies, except versus the Philippines’ peso, where it rose to 8.40/8.41 from 8.41/8.42 last Friday.

It slipped versus the Thai baht to 13.0336/0503 compared with 13.0116/0318 on Friday, went down vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 300.2/300.6 from 299.8/300.4 and eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.5109/5141 from 3.5106/5145 previously. — Bernama