Bank Negara dismisses inaccurate US dollar-ringgit exchange rate data, calls Google out over misreporting

KUCHING: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has dismissed the inaccurate ringgit exchange rate data that has been circulating on social media based on an erroneous US dollar/ringgit exchange rate published by Google on Friday (March 15).

“This is an inaccurate information that does not reflect the actual trading. Yesterday (March 15), the US$/RM was quoted at 4.7015 at 9am, and 4.7045 at 5pm, with an intraday high of 4.7075 in the onshore interbank market for ringgit, as published on the BNM website,” said the central bank in a statement yesterday.

It said in the past two weeks (March 1-15), the ringgit had strengthened 0.76 per cent against the US dollar.

According to BNM, this was the second incident that Google had published an inaccurate US$/ringgit exchange rate data this year.

The central bank had earlier issued a stern warning to Google when the first misreporting had occurred on Feb 6.

“As this is the second instance of misreporting, BNM will be engaging Google for an explanation of how the inaccurate reporting occurred and the corrective measures taken, given that this is a recurring issue that has afflicted Malaysia and other countries in the past few months,” said BNM.

“Members of the public are advised to rely on official data, including from BNM,” said the central bank, also advising the public to always exercise caution against using, circulating or speculating on unverifiable sources as a reference for the ringgit.

“The exchange rate is a market-sensitive data and any inaccurate reporting and circulation of unverified data can cause serious implications for the financial markets,” it added.