nigelforbes

Nope, read the first post in the Baht thread below. There is NO direct exchange rate between the Pound and the Baht, it must be calculated every time using USD as an intermediary. That means that whatever happens to USD, influences how many Baht you get for your Pound, evevn if Pound and Baht remain constant. "GBP/THB is calculated using the following formulae: USD/THB x GBP/USD. This mean that whilst the value of USD/THB is influenced by two currencies/economies, the value of GBP/THB is influenced by three and the reason for movements in that pair is not always immediately obvious".

Not for the quantity of Serling you receive you can't. But you can blame USD for the number of Baht those Pounds exchange for Baht because USD is a major part of that calculation.

Incorrect, I've used agents for the past 15 years. The difference is, I have the money in the bank and don't use an agent to pretend I do.

(The above is nigelforbes quote - for some reason the software is attributing it to.someone else, and also making my type tiny). I don't understand the last sentence. Why it follows that Consumer Prices will be higher. And how the Fuel Subsidy Fund is replenished. When all things are equal and the price of oil on the open market is "normal", AND the value of the Fuel Stabilisation Fund, (sorry, I called this the fuel subsidy fund earlier) the price of petrol to the consumer per gallon is X and the Fund is neither being drawn down or replenished. When the price of oil increases and the price of fuel to consumers is increased, many times over short periods, the Fuel Fund absorbs some of that increase so the price per gallon remains lower than it would otherwise be. During these times the Fund is being drawn down. As the price of oil falls and returns to normal, the rate at which the consumer price falls is slower than it might otherwise be because the Fuel Fund has to be replenished by the consumers as they pay for their tanks of petrol. Once the Fund is back to "normal" again, the price of fuel per gallon returns to its normal level. You can think of the Fuel Fund as a system of free loans to the consumer that are available to used when needed, but they must be repaid later. The Fund is run by government, I don't know how it was funded originally but it is now in substantial debt and bank loans have been taken out to replenish the fund, I hope that's clear.

If you could ever manage to move away from the generality that all cops are crooks and on the take and drive sports cars, the coin may eventually drop with you that many, the majority, are suffering from the effects of inflation. By providing them with subsidised meals it helps ensure that the combination of low pay and inflation, don't push them towards becomes crooks......are we there yet!

I don't have a lot of confidence that removing the names of emoji posters is a good idea. I won't know who is trolling me and who to put on ignore and I don't trust mods to do that job for me.

70% of the Thai economy depends on exports, 70%. Over 65% of all export bills are settled in US Dollars, that's the global convention, USD is the only currency that matters to trade, the only one. In the FOREX, USD is at the very top of the exchange rate pair tree, all other currencies have a direct or indirect relationship with it, GBP and EURO all have direct relationships with USD. It doesn't matter what happens to GBP or EURO, when it comes to the GBP or EURO exchange rate with the Baht, it's USD that matters because the Dollar is directly involved in determining the exchange rate. GBP and EURO do NOT have direct relationship with THB, the way the Pound/Baht exchange rate is calculated is: USD/THB x GBP/USD. Once again, it's USD that matters, nothing else, unfortunately, the whole world is hanging on USD but much of it wishes it wasn't. You seem to have a question or point about inflation but I can't tell what it is, sorry. When you ask, why is the THB being watched, I presume you mean watched by the US Federal Reserve for money laundering and why is it on a watch list? I must have answered that question ten times this month alone but let's make it eleven! There is an imbalance of trade between NAFTA and particularly the US and Thailand, Thailand exports more to the USA than it imports. This results in a trade surplus for Thailand which feeds into their current account surplus. That results in a stronger Baht. The issue is trade, not currency, all of this is described in the opening post in the Baht Thread which I've linked for you a couple of times, which clearly you have not read or understood, despite you claiming to understand all of this very well.....you don't understand much of it all! Go read that thread, especially the first post and please don't ask me to repeat the same things over that are already in that post. Here it is yet again:

These numbers do get reported differently from time to time but the latest one I can see currently is a newspaper article in the Bangkok Post which I'm not allowed to quote or link to. If you do a google search typing in, "how many people file tax returns thailand", you'll see the link and the article dated 2020. To summarise: There are about 9.5 million tax payers, that means people who have filed a tax return at least once, not that they file a return or pay taxes on a regular basis. Out of that total, only 3.3 million earned over the tax threshold of 25,000 baht per month, which is enough to require them to file a tax return. So about, 5% of the population.

It's sad that people can't educate themselves on this, especially since this is home for many, instead many continue to believe bar stool stories. Oh well!

I suggest you read the Baht Thread and better understand the constructs of the Baht exchange rate.

If you want to ask a question or make a statement, do so, but don't just say something's BS without giving a reason why, otherwise you have zero credibility.

The banks all use the same pool of labour, the same tellers, branch staff etc, many drift from one bank to another over time. Mostly it is luck of the draw whether you encounter good staff or not, if you do, the situation will change inside 12 months because the good ones get moved up and on. To suggest that one brand has better quality staff than another brand is nonsense. I've held accounts at most of the major banks here and I can tell you that over time, there is no difference. You can improve your chances of success by not using small rural branches, business centres in cities and especially in the CBD are the best chance you have, even then it's luck of the draw.

Barncrock bank, partners with dairy queen, take out a fixed deposit and get a free slurpy cone, gawd.

Whoooosh!

Agreed, not by ATM, only by branch.

555.....where's bloo dy laughing emoji when you needs it...bring it back this instant.

Was she dropping hints then?

Branches are NOT independently owned, that's silly. The paperwork used to open an account, remains with the opening branch, branches hold files on each customer who opened an account at that branch. I've seen my wife's file when we were trying to resolve a problem, the branch actually pulled it out to see what she wrote when she opened the account. I've also seen mine at a different bank, under similar circumstances. As for being charged to deposit cash.....Thailand's banking system operates on a provincial basis, all transactions from outside the province are chargeable, even depositing cash into your own account.

I'll give you my mask when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

I held a certain LTF fund that contained an airline's shares for over 15 years, they increased in value very nicely. Then one day, said airline decided to file for protection and as a part of that deal, agreed to refund to the fund, the face value of the shares it had purchased 15 years earlier. Face value, what a deal. Imagine buying a sofa and returning it to the store and they tell you they'll refund the price of 15 years ago....said LTF duly crashed and burned.

I presume you can see the graphs, your coincidence argument is so far out on a limb that the tree fell over years ago. I know how much you dearly want to blame the PM for this but you're going to have find something else to blame on him, I know, how's about global warming!

Correct, there was no coincidence, neither did the one thing have any effect on the other. Once again, USD is at the heart of the matter, look at the GBP/USD relationship and then look at GBP/THB, you don't see Thaksin or an army general anywhere! What you do see is a Pound loosing value against USD, which translates into the Pound loosing value against THB.

OK but to be clear, that's intervention, not manipulation, intervention is smoothing the peaks and troughs. But glad we agree.

Ten thousand wrongs don't make a right.

BOT wont be concerned if you want to theorise on the subject, they've heard and seen it all before. The problem with suggesting currency manipulation is two fold: the first is there's another explanation for Baht volatility that is supported by global markets, central banks and economists globally. And let's face it, if any central bank thought that BOT was indeed playing fast an free with the Baht, it would be easily noticed and other countries would refuse to deal with them, least of foreign investors, especially not the Japanese who are the biggest investor. The second aspect I've already mentioned which is the imbalance of trade and the US fed. But an extension of that is that BOT is actually required to intervene in markets by IMF rules, in order to smooth volatility. To then suggest there is a third layer which is manipulation for gain, well, it's just silly.