The Edge Market: MARC: Local ‘govvies’ in secondary market continues to weaken but foreign holdings rebound first time in 3 months

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 13): Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) said local government bonds (govvies) in the secondary market continued to weaken in October, moving in tandem with the fall of the ringgit and the surge in UST' (U.S. Treasuries) yields.

The Edge Market: Govt guarantees rises by 9% from Dec 2017 to June 2018

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 2): Malaysia’s outstanding government guarantees have increased by 8.5% or RM20.2 billion in six months to RM258.4 billion at end-June 2018, from RM238.2 billion at end-2017, according to the Economic Report 2018/2019.

The Edge Market: MySay: Malaysia’s development financing institutions need rebooting

This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 15, 2018 - October 21, 2018.

Policymakers often justify the high cost of infrastructure investments with the belief that they are supply led, that is, the demand for their usage will increase once the facilities are built. The question now lies in how to finance these infrastructure investments, knowing that it will be a while before the demand or usage ramps up.

The Star: Treasury Pulse

Global Forex Market

THE US dollar continued its rally, rising 1.1% to 95.3 due to safe haven flows as trade war concerns continued to weigh on investors’ risk appetite after US President Trump announced a clampdown on Chinese investments in US technology firms.

Borneo Post Online: BPA Malaysia Weekly Bond Market Report

Looking at the Thomson Reuters BPAM All Bond Index Performance, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) left its benchmark interest rate unchanged as widely expected, acknowledging that inflation is approaching towards its two per cent target.

The Fed also emphasised on its ‘symmetric’ inflation target, suggesting its willingness to allow inflation to run above its target level before any further tightening.