The interest rates of all maturities kept stable during December 1, last year to January 27, said Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian central bank, said in a statement on Thursday that the daily weighted average overnight interbank rate moved within a narrow range of 1.99 to 2.00 percent during the period, while other maturies were also relatively stable.

The bank launched its routine Monetary and Financial Developments report for December 2009 on Thursday.

It said that the average fixed deposit rates of commercial banks were unchanged between December and January.

As at January 15, the average quoted fixed deposit rates for tenures between one and 12 months were within the range of 2-2.5 percent, Bank Negara said.

In terms of the commercial banks' lending rates, the average base lending rate (BLR) was unchanged at 5.51 percent as at January 15 while the average lending rate (ALR) trended lower to 4.83 percent as at end-December compared with 4.91 percent in November and 4.85 percent in October, it said.

Bank Negara said the Malaysian currency ringgit depreciated by 1 percent against the US dollar from December 1 to January 27 but it appreciated against the euro by 6 percent, the Japanese yen by 1.9 percent and the pound sterling by 1.8 percent.

Within the region, the ringgit appreciated against the Singapore dollar by 0.5 percent but it went down against other regional currencies by between 1-1.8 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2010)