Central bank, customs cooperate to stem baht speculation

BANGKOK: -- The Bank of Thailand is cooperating with the Customs Department in curbing transfers of Thailand's baht out of the country for speculation on currency differences in offshore and domestic markets.

Central bank Governor Tarisa Watanagase said the baht's movement in both offshore and onshore markets had begun to widen since there are transactions regarding baht delivery on maturity of forward contracts made by foreign investors.

In addition, the 30 per cent reserve requirement imposed by the central bank late last year helped curb the outflow of the baht.

Under the circumstance, the volume of the baht in the offshore market is very low because there are no business transactions.

She conceded the speculation on the baht difference in the offshore and onshore markets is not an easy task because speculators must bring a large amount of money into the country.

The Bank of Thailand and the Customs Department have jointly supervised the matter.

In regard to speculation that the capital controls measure would be lifted soon, Mrs. Tarisa said the central bank had not yet changed its stance on the matter since it viewed it as successfully keeping the baht stable.

--TNA 2007-02-16

Great, the gov't is going to get customs to do what they were supposed to be doing all along.

Great, the gov't is going to get customs to do what they were supposed to be doing all along.

Indeed. In May/June '97 with the pre-devaluation hysteria there were numerous seizures of suitcases bound for Singapore stuffed with baht reported in the Bangkok Post . No doubt history is repeating itself.

Great, the gov't is going to get customs to do what they were supposed to be doing all along.

Indeed. In May/June '97 with the pre-devaluation hysteria there were numerous seizures of suitcases bound for Singapore stuffed with baht reported in the Bangkok Post . No doubt history is repeating itself.

Does this mean a person will do better to buy his baht before entering thailand? anybody

I just passed thru IAD, the spread was 28/37 at one of the changing booths, seemed really odd. 35.4~ is bad enough, I don't think I'll take any at 28. There may be much better rates elsewhere.

The best customs control in the world isn't going to stop high level black market currency dealing. I would bet that there are plenty of alternative routes to taking baht out of the country and flipping it in the overseas currency market. I would reckon that some well connected big hair thais are probably becoming very wealthy from these policies.