Malaysians Offer Their Two Cents’ Worth As Ringgit Breached RM4 For A Dollar

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"The objective of every business owner is to maximise profit. Hence, it is unavoidable for prices to go up. **The group of consumers that will suffer the most will be the fixed-income earners, more specifically the lower and some middle-class consumers,**" Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, Chairman of Centre for Public Policy Studies said.

**"With the depreciation of the ringgit, the prices of products will go up because the cost of production has also increased.** This is because most of the components to manufacture these products are imported. Items like dairy products which are important will now cost more," Datuk Seri Saw Choo Boon, President of Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers said.

"The effect on the prices of goods has taken place since the ringgit began to slide in April. The drop was due to political issues causing investors to lose confidence in the country. **The economy has been on a downward trend, partly due to the domino effect of the implementation of GST.** Businessmen being businessmen, they have to make profits and have taken advantage of the situation to hike up their prices. If consumers find that prices have gone up absurdly, they should not remain ignorant but report it to the relevant consumer groups," Datuk Amarjit Singh Gill, Secretary-general of Malaysian Consumers' Association said.