Baht stable despite impact of European public debt crisis: BoT

BANGKOK, June 5 (TNA) – Asian currencies including the Thai baht are holding their stability at present despite the heavy volatility of the Euro, fuelled by the public debt crisis in some European countries, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).

BoT Assistant Governor Suchada Kirakul said the regional currencies had not been adversely affected by the debt problems in Europe because the economic fundamentals of the Asian countries are rather strong as could be witnessed by the impressive economic growth of many countries in the first quarter of this year. She indicated Singapore as an example, which enjoyed a 15 per cent growth, and Thailand 12 per cent expansion.

“The regional currencies including the baht are seen weakening slightly on a daily basis, but they have nonetheless strengthened since early this year. For
instance, the baht has risen 2.4 per cent, the Indonesian rupiah by 2.6 per cent and the Malaysian ringgit by 4.8 per cent,” she said.

The baht had moved rather steadily partly because the currency had already weakened to a certain extent due to tensions in the Korean peninsula and Thailand’s domestic political disorder.

Capital movements have been rather balanced for the moment although foreign capital have been flowing out from the stock market in some amount.

She said that some foreign funds had still flowed into the bond market and foreign investment funds (FIF) remitted investment returns.

Simultaneously, the trading of exporters and importers had been rather in equilibrium, resulting in the baht becoming stable, she said. (TNA)