Government to help small exporters hurt by baht appreciation

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Government to help small exporters hurt by baht appreciation

By The Nation

 

File photo : Somkid

 

BANGKOK: -- The government has earmarked Bt1.5 billion to help small businesses adversely affected by the baht’s appreciation and to support upgrades to their production facilities.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak chaired a meeting on Monday of a committee charged with promoting small and medium-sized enterprises to discuss further supportive measures.

 

Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana said the committee agreed to allocate Bt1 billion in soft loans to SMEs and tech start-ups seeking to upgrade production capacity. 

 

Owners of businesses affected by the rising baht would be coached in hedging against currency volatility and receive “discount coupons” worth Bt30,000 each, Uttama said. 

 

The government plans to spend about Bt500 million to address the currency shift’s impact. 

 

The Bank of Thailand, Thai Bankers Association and SME Development Bank will organise training courses for SMEs.

 

The baht has strengthened by 7-8 per cent against US dollar since early this year, sparking concern among exporters whose product prices will no longer by competitive internationally.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Economy/30327611

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-09-25

[LazySlipper]

The PM and his cronies are killing exports and hurting tourism and me by keeping the baht so high.

 

I guess he needs a strong baht to be able to buy his war toys.

[Cadbury]

31 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

The PM and his cronies are killing exports and hurting tourism and me by keeping the baht so high.

 

I guess he needs a strong baht to be able to buy his war toys.

The PM's cronies are not doing anything to keep the baht high. The baht is only strong because the US dollar has weakened. About 10% against a basket of currencies including the euro, yen, Swiss franc.

The PM is boasting the Thai language will become the new international language. Perhaps his ego will allow him to believe the Thai baht will become the new international currency. 

[Bob12345]

Curious thing; last week i came across an article claiming the USA might call Thailand out for currency manipulation.

 

That is devalueing the currency artificially to promote exports.

 

Reasons given: 20b usd trade surplus, central bank interventions, and one more i dont remember.

 

And here i only read stories that the baht is artificially expensive ( killing exports and tourism).

 

So which one is it?

[RichardColeman]

But they keep telling us exports are booming ! I'm guess these exporters must be in the wrong business if they cannot sell when times are a booming ! You'll be doing this every year Pal

[Srikcir]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

Bt1 billion in soft loans to SMEs and tech start-ups seeking to upgrade production capacity

Wouldn't a monetary interest rate cut be cheaper to the government than making low interest loans to SME's that might default on the loans?