Good News?

I am happy about this. I am a believer of the free(r) market as a good way of creating equitable economies.

Fundamentally, we have been artificially protecting our exports via the currency peg. But we aren't merely an export-based economy. Many inputs into our products, services and infrastructure are imported. This artificial protection causes some problems. This may be a sweeping statement, but I suspect it causes complacency in terms of cost control and process/product improvement. It really acts as a hindrance to move away from price intensive strategies rather than move on to higher end, differentiated products (which generally means better margins). Further to that, the weakening US Dollar has been causing hardship for many manufacturers who need to upgrade their machines, expand production base and import materials as the pegged MYR goes down against Euro and Yen. I should know, having been involved in budgets for capital expenditure and product costing. Really, it isn't just as simple as a stable MYR-US$ exchange that matters. We should learn to respond accordingly to market fluctuations.

On a personal note, I think it may make my trip to UK cheaper :P (keeping fingers crossed and hoping MYR appreciates). But I hope my Sing Dollars won't lose too much of it's value, I should have changed it back to MYR earlier.