Malaysia Bonds, Ringgit Drop as Najib Flags $7 Billion Shortfall
- Prime minister repeats warning signalled in budget speech
- Oil decline hurts sentiment just as 1MDB readies asset sales
This article is for subscribers only.
Malaysian bonds fell and the ringgit’s three-day gain petered out after the New Straits Times cited Prime Minister Najib Razak as saying the government faced a 30 billion-ringgit ($7 billion) shortfall in 2016 due to a slump in oil prices.
The decline in bonds drove 10-year yields to the highest this month, while the currency dropped 1.1 percent to 4.2615 a dollar in Kuala Lumpur, erasing its 0.4 percent gain over the previous three days, according to data from local banks compiled by Bloomberg.