##flows of usd19. 1 billion and a depreciation of 9. 7 % of the ringgit against the us dollar. despite this, our capacity, capability and resilience in managing these sizable and volatile financial flows have been fortified in a number of ways. our economic fundamentals have remained healthy and our financial market is more diversified and well - developed. this enhanced the ability of the financial system to absorb capital inflows and outflows, thereby minimising disruptions while ensuring that these flows can be effectively intermediated to support real economic activity. malaysia ’ s exchange rate regime has also accorded the necessary flexibility for the exchange rate to adjust to the changing conditions. this has provided a good balance between flexibility and stability. our ability to manage domestic liquidity has also improved significantly, supported by a wider range of instruments to conduct monetary operations and strengthened surveillance systems. pervasive impact of the offshore markets however, one noticeable observation over the years was that, for each episode of volatility we faced, the subsequent calm would see an even larger build - up of risks. in particular, with the high non - resident investors ’ participation in the onshore financial market, we saw significant growth in the ringgit ndf market. more recently, in november 2016, non - resident investors ’ holdings reached a record high of 34. 7 % of malaysian government bonds. while some argue that the ringgit ndf market is used by non - resident investors to hedge their ringgit assets, the reality is far more sobering. it is mostly used for speculative purposes. these speculative activities have shown to have adverse negative spillovers to the onshore financial market due to its volatility. more importantly, the sheer volume of this market, which surpassed over 300 % of gdp in 2015, underscores the extent of disconnect between ndf trading and economic reality. given the size, onshore markets were vulnerable to the arbitrary and unpredictable nature of the offshore market. besides this vulnerability, there was an even larger long term challenge that we faced. the offshore market was developing and thriving at the expense and detriment of the onshore market and domestic stability. the recent developments following the us presidential election have attested to this fact. following the results of the presidential election, the ringgit ndf was traded 2 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches as high as 2168 pips away from the onshore market close during the new york trading hours. such a significant

assistance. allow me to now share malaysia ’ s experience in the development of the sukuk market in our islamic finance marketplace. the islamic capital market in malaysia has been systematically developed to ensure accessibility whilst ensuring the protection of investors and efficiency in the intermediation process. the initiatives to develop the market are also strongly backed by the legal and shariah framework which is further supported by a robust financial infrastructure, including the settlement and bond information system that enables malaysia to provide a complete sukuk issuance and trading platform. since the first sukuk issuance in 1990 by a multinational corporation in malaysia, the sukuk outstanding in the malaysian marketplace is now us $ 158 billion. in 2002, the malaysian government issued its inaugural global sovereign sukuk, raising us $ 600 million, which became an international benchmark for the issuance of global sovereign sukuk. the marketplace has now been liberalised to allow for multilateral financial institutions, multinational and national corporations from other jurisdictions to issue both ringgit and nonringgit denominated sukuk in our sukuk market with increasing foreign investor participation in such issuances the sukuk market in malaysia has seen wide ranging innovative structures and a greater diversity in the type and maturity of the sukuk. a landmark issuance is the us $ 750 million exchangeable sukuk musyarakah in 2006 by khazanah, the government ’ s investment corporation for the purpose of selling a stake in telekom malaysia. it marked the first issuance of its kind, incorporating full convertibility features common to conventional equitylinked transactions. a further notable issuance was the pioneering retail exchange - traded sukuk to raise funds for a transportation project that allowed retail investors the opportunity to have direct access to the sukuk and thus a stake in a massive infrastructure development in the country, therefore broadening the range of low - risk investment products available to such investors. in terms of maturity, the ringgit sukuk market has seen issuances of maturities to 30 years which were well received by the financial market. regular sukuk issuances with different maturities by the malaysian government has also created a benchmark yield curve for market reference, of which is complimented by the establishment of a number of indices for non - ringgit and ringgit denominated sukuk that serve as benchmarks to track the performance of sukuk. these initiatives have progressively contributed towards creating a