Word: ringgit
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...swap agreements China has hashed out circumvent most of these problems. A Malaysian clothing store, for example, that buys shirts and dresses from China can now use its local currency, the ringgit, to pay for its purchases. Because it no longer has to pay a bank a fee to convert ringgit into dollars, transaction costs are reduced. Similarly, a Chinese company buying Malaysian palm oil can make its purchases in yuan. (Read about the economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore...
...Another lesson: don't be afraid to experiment. Unorthodox measures can pay off. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was slammed by most orthodox economists for pegging his currency and slapping on capital controls when the crisis hit to defend the ringgit. While Mahathir's anti-Semitic diatribes against hedge funds and currency traders were off the mark, his radical action bought Malaysia time and almost certainly saved it from the worst ravages of the crisis...
...basket, China will need to diversify its enormous portfolio of foreign-exchange reserves, which totaled some $660 billion at the end of the first quarter. Other Asian countries?also massively overweighted in dollars?should follow China's lead. The near-simultaneous announcement by Malaysia that it would abandon the ringgit's dollar peg in favor of a managed basket float confirms such a possibility. The Bank of Korea has also been itching to diversify out of dollars...
...challenge as their economies strengthened. Yuan reform could remove the first log from the logjam?the Japanese yen, Korean won and Thai baht all rose against the greenback immediately after China revalued. And within an hour of Beijing's announcement, Malaysia ended its 7-year-old peg of the ringgit to the dollar, which was imposed during Asia's financial crisis to help stabilize the faltering economy. Malaysia had to move almost immediately after Beijing acted, or else the speculative pressure from punters betting on a rising ringgit "would have been immense," says Manu Baskaran, a partner with the Singapore...
Malaysians are mad about soccer, but if they want to wager a few ringgit on Manchester United or Arsenal, they do so at their own risk: gambling on the beautiful game is illegal in the predominantly Muslim nation. Last year, that situation was headed for change. Earlier this month, news was leaked that tycoon Vincent Tan had been awarded a license to run a national soccer-betting network by outgoing Prime Minister...