Kuala lumpur: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the United States (US) Department of the Treasury have agreed to continue close consultations on macroeconomic and foreign exchange (FX) matters.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, BNM stated that the US and Malaysia have reaffirmed their commitment under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Articles of Agreement to avoid manipulating exchange rates or the international monetary system for unfair competitive advantage or to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment.

Both nations have also agreed that any macroprudential or capital flow measures will not be used to target exchange rates for competitive purposes. Additionally, they pledged that other government investment vehicles, such as pension funds, will invest abroad for risk-adjusted return and diversification purposes, not to target the exchange rate for competitive purposes.

BNM emphasized that both countries concurred that FX market intervention should only be used to address excessive volatility or disorderly movements, whether due to sharp depreciation or appreciation. The central bank highlighted the importance of transparent exchange rate policies, committing to disclosing net FX purchases or sales on an aggregated basis over 12 months, published every end-March and end-September.

Furthermore, BNM will continue to release FX reserves and forward position data monthly, in line with the IMF’s Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity. Additionally, BNM commits to sharing aggregated six-month FX transaction data with the US Treasury on a confidential, bilateral basis, with a three-month lag.