Ringgit falls below 4 per dollar amid corruption allegations

Malaysia's ringgit weakened past the psychologically important 4 per dollar level on Wednesday as regional currencies lost ground after China allowed the yuan to drop for the second straight day.

The ringgit fell 1.1 per cent to 4.0040 to the dollar as of 0335 GMT, its weakest since Sept. 1, 1998.

Malaysia pegged the ringgit at 3.8000 from early September 1998 to support the currency during the Asian financial crisis. The country took the ringgit off the peg in 2005. (watch realtime RM exchange rates)

Confidence in Malaysia had already been weakening due to falling commodity prices and growing pressure on Prime Minister Najib Razak amid corruption allegations circling the indebted 1MDB state fund.