KUALA LUMPUR (NewsRise) -- Malaysia's ringgit rose to its highest in nearly two months on Friday and looks set to post its biggest weekly gain in 17 years as minutes of Federal Reserve's September meeting reinforced hopes that the U.S. central bank will prefer to keep interest rates near zero for a while longer. A jump in crude oil prices also helped sentiment for the currency. Minutes from the September 16-17 meeting revealed that policymakers remained uneasy with low inflation and discussed at length the possibility of China-led slowdown weighing on U.S. The ringgit jumped over 3% to 4.1150, its highest level in almost two months. For the week, ringgit is up 6.8%, its biggest weekly gain since September 1998. For the year though, the currency is down 17.6% and continues to be the Asia's worst performer against the greenback. Strong stocks, better-than-expected August trade data, receding chances of a Federal Reserve rate hike in 2015 and a resurgence oil and palm prices have turned the tide in favor of the ringgit and outclassed concerns arising from a slowing economy and a political uncertainty centering around Prime Minister Najib Razak's alleged financial links to debt-ridden state investment fund 1 Malaysia Development Bhd. "This is probably a short-term thing," said DBS Bank's senior currency economist Philip Wee. "The market is still unwinding some positions" taken in anticipation of Federal Reserve raising rates and the "rapid move is something that has taken a lot of people by surprise." Many analysts expect the ringgit to weaken again by year-end, with DBS' Wee forecasting the unit at 4.3400 while Maybank estimates it at 4.3500. The dovish Federal Reserve minutes and capital inflows also bolstered other South East Asian currencies also, led by an over 3.5% rally in Indonesian rupiah. The rupiah is the second worst performing Asian currency this year, after the ringgit, having fallen 8% so far in 2015. The rupiah advanced almost 9% this week. The Philippine peso and the Thai baht rose by 0.40% and 0.48%. The Singapore dollar rallied by 0.38%. Other Asian currencies rallied too, with the Korean won climbing by 0.1% and the Taiwan dollar gaining 0.22%. The benchmark stock index KLCI rose by 1.04% to 1709.73, its highest level since August 6.

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