Is the ringgit excessively weak?

It's undervalued by over 15%.

The ringgit's unprecedented crash is blamed on a series of factors: weak growth, lower oil prices, and domestic political uncertainty are the most obvious culprits.

Analysts at UBS caution that although these reasons justify the ringgit's weakness, the currency still looks extremely undervalued.

"While calculations of real effective exchange rates can be difficult the ringgit is starting to look low on our, and others calculations. In May the IMF estimated that the ringgit real effective exchange rate was undervalued by 15% – and it's depreciated 7% further since," UBS said.

UBS believes that the ringgit could recover once oil prices bounce back in 2016.

"The story is hardly a positive one: growth is slowing, politics are uncertain, and debt, both internal and external, is high. But external assets are also high, the current account surplus is resilient, and Malaysia has positive real interest rates. CNY weakness, even lower oil prices, and fed rate hikes around the corner might push the ringgit lower still – but, absent of these pressures, a bounce in the oil price in 2016 could help the ringgit recover. We look for USDMYR at 4.20 end-2015, and 4.00 end-2016," UBS noted.

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