MONEY MASTER

News The ECB cut its overnight deposit rate to -0.4% from -0.3%. Its main refinancing rate was also cut to 0% from 0.05%. The ECB’s monthly asset purchases are raised to €80bn from €60bn and investment grade corporate bonds are now included in the purchase programme. A new series of 4 targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO II) will be launched. ECB President Mario Draghi said he does not anticipate further need for monetary stimulus. Comment The massive monetary stimulus shows that the ECB is desperate to defend the Euro zone from deflation risk and is willing to drive interest rates deeper into the negative territory despite the potential backlash on net interest margin of banks. We are mildly positive on the latest ECB stimulus as it prevents further slippage of growth and inflation expectations. We maintain our GDP growth forecast of Euro-area at 1.5% (2015: +1.5%). Despite exceeding market expectations, the impact of ECB stimulus may be muted for the ...

BNM International Reserve The Malaysia's BNM International Reserve has dropped again from US $ 96.5 billion in July 31st to US$94.7 billion as at end-August 2015, down 2% or US$2 billion month-on-month to its lowest since July 2010.  The figure reflects a third straight decline on the BNM International Reserve but it was higher than it was in mid August 2015, when it was at just US$94.5 billion. It shows a US$200 million increase from the mid of August low. The central bank has issued a statement, stating that the reserves are sufficient to finance 7.4 months of retained imports and is 1.0 times short-term external debt.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves fell RM8.3bil to RM356.4bil (US$94.5bil) over the past two weeks until Aug 14. BNM said on Thursday the international reserves as at Aug 14 was sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and it was 1.0 time the short-term external debt. The reserves had declined by RM8.3bil from the RM364.7bil (US$96.7bil) as at July 31, 2015. The reserves position then was sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports and was 1.1 times the short-term external debt. The above news was taken from Bank Negara reserves decline to RM356B from The Star. The bad news is the reserves are still dropping, but at slower rate; although the Malaysian Ringgit continue to dive until 4.19 against the US Dollar before gaining back and close at 4.17 for the weekends. The slower rate of the reserves drop would most likely because there is no longer intervention by the Bank Negara against the Malaysian Ringgit devaluation ...

The Ringgit weakened against the USD and this trend seems to continue and show no sign of slowing down. USD against MYR currency A quick search on google will show you this and it's scary because the spike doesn't seem to slow down and there's no sign of it any time soon.  And to make matters worse, the BNM International Reserve as of July 2015 has shrunk below US$100 billion.  BNM International Reserves shrunk below US$100 billion To put into perspective, this is the first time that the reserve has fall below this level since August 2010.  The central bank gave a statement today and said the reserves' position is sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the short-term external debt.  The concern on the Ringgit currency is real as it has depreciated for 8 consecutive days.  The local currency slipped further today to 3.9265 against the US dollar — the lowest level in 17 years — compared with Thursday...