Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid attributed his assessment to key data points from China and the US that will be unveiled today.

In China, Afzanizam said, the fixed asset investment is expected to be sustained at 3.8% in July.

In the US, he said, retail sales are likely to rise by 0.4% month-on-month in July from 0.2% previously.

“This suggests that the US Federal Reserve’s pivot will not occur in the near-term,” he told Bernama.

The ringgit began the day lower against the US dollar on a further appreciation of the US dollar index (DXY) as investors remained worried about growth prospects in the global economy in general and the China economy in particular.

At 9.01am, the local note declined to 4.6275/4.6295 against the US dollar compared with 4.6140/4.6175 at yesterday’s close.

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

It marginally rose against the Japanese yen to 3.1822/3.1838 from 3.1832/3.1858 yesterday, improved versus the euro to 5.0468/5.0489 from 5.0519/5.0557, but fell vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.8691/5.8716 from 5.8575/5.8619 previously.

In the meantime, the local unit was traded lower against other Asean currencies.

The ringgit eased against the Indonesian rupiah to 302.1/302.4 from 301.2/301.6 yesterday and weakened against the Philippine peso to 8.15/8.18 from 8.11/8.13.

It was lower versus the Singapore dollar to 3.4124/3.4143 from 3.4064/3.4095 at yesterday’s close and declined vis-a-vis the Thai baht to 13.1232/13.1337 from 13.1173/13.1332 yesterday.