Abstract—This paper examines monetary independence
during the period when Malaysia had a fixed exchange rate and
an open capital account regime. The objective is to assess the
relevance of the Impossible Trinity for policy. The evidence of
cointegration between the Malaysian and US interest rates
during this period, suggests that there is no monetary
independence in the long run. However, our results show there
is: Malaysia retains some monetary autonomy in the short run.
The loss of long-run monetary autonomy under peg/open
capital was in line with the trinity, and may be one reason the
peg was eventually abandoned for managed floating in July
2005.