Thai Baht Plummets with US Tariff Blow: 34.50 per Dollar Test Looms

[Psychic]

"Plummets"

🤣🤣🤣

 

It has gained a lot due to its ties to the $USD 

 

It hasn't even began to give that back.

 

For instance the Canadian dollar was over 25 a year ago.

Just went back over 24.

 

An actual "plummeting" baht would probably be a good thing.

Cheaper export prices and increased tourism.

 

 

[technoronin]

"Plummets"?  Last year it was down to around 37:1 THB:USD.  This is just anther Trump hating writer.  34.5 is well within normal variation, it's a pity that research is optional in modern journalism.

[blazes]

It seems evident that Trump wants to devalue the dollar so that American exports to the rest of the world will become highly favoured and therefore will help to bring down the horrendous mountain of American debt.

You can also expect him to urge Jay Powell & co. to lower US interest rates so as to weaken the dollar even further.  (If there is a resultant recession,  the Fed will lower rates to try and...er....fix it.

[Robert_O]

On 4/4/2025 at 7:16 AM, Seagull Sam said:

Let's all have a good laugh at the crazy nutjob the dumb ass Mid West put in charge of the world economy. 

It will all end in tears before bed time and the Chinese will think all their birthdays have come at once. 

Most of the world, including most US voters, has given this President (Trump) the power to do what needs to be done. If you live in Thailand, you're never affected by what happens in other countries, even your own (Thailand). Why does he impact the world economy? If the United States sneezes, everyone catches a cold. He's the best man for the job to get rid of the "post-COVID" bul<deleted>! Suffer minions.

[JUARNETTE]

What? 34/$ has been the norm for about 9 months.  Before that it went to 39/$.  In 2022 after Covid it was 29/$. Sounds like someone (WTO) is trying to create something out of nothing.

[cardinalblue]

Taxing SS reduces the life of the SS fund by many years…very bad news for the future recipients of SS checks which might include you

 

also it threatens the protection of the the double taxation treaty with thailand so you want to pay taxes to thailand at a nuch higher rate?

[Stevemercer]

What is the difference between the recent American (tariff) versus Australian (devalue currency) approaches  to boost their economies.

 

Tarrifs are meant to discourage imports and (hopefully) boost the domestic economy. Australia takes the approach of pushing down the Australian dollar to acheive the same outcome (e.g. make imports more expensive, boost the domestic economy and give a competitive advantage to what Australia does best).

 

Which approach actually works? The Australia approach centres the pain on everyday Australians through lower living standards. The American approach tries to transfer the pain to America's importers, but can backfire by making America's competitors even more competitive and ultimately making Americans worse off.

[Kerryd]

On 4/4/2025 at 8:18 AM, Pouatchee said:

i am looking at the cdn $ and it hasn't been this good in quite a while. Damn I am starting to love these tariffs...

The Cdn $ was around 27 to one around 1 1/2 years ago (according the WISE transfers I've made).
It dropped over 3 baht to the dollar in 18 months and has barely gone up 1 baht in the last 3 months.

And that was before all the tariff nonsense.

But Thailand sets the exchange rates and pegs the baht to the US dollar so it often doesn't matter how strong our dollar is, it still gets less than the US.

When the Conservatives formed the gov't back in '06, our dollar started to recover from the years of Liberal mismanagement. At one point when Chretien and Martin were running things, the dollar dropped to it's lowest ever vs the US $ (0.72 -1) and those two were happy about it !

When Harper took over and the $ started going up, the Liberals whined that it would ruin our economy and there'd be huge job losses.
Never happened.

In fact, in '08 our dollar was trading at par with the US and our economy was fine and there were not job losses, proving just how incompetent the Liberals were. (They'd been trying to depress the value to benefit their rich buddies who paid for labour and resources in Cdn $ and sold it for US$. The weaker the Cdn $, the greater their profits.)

At one point the Cdn $ was worth $1.10 US ! (Didn't stay there long but it was a h3ll of a lot better than 0.72 !)

But !
The US $ was getting almost 37 baht and the Cdn was only getting 32 !

I was a little miffed (as in - pissed off) because I was getting paid in Cdn - wired to my Thai account. We should have been getting more baht to the dollar than the US but because Thailand set the exchange rates (instead of the markets) they deliberately kept the US $ higher.

And as long as the Liberals are running things - it will NOT get any better. Historically, every single time they form the gov't (since the end of WW2) our dollar has lost value and every time another gov't (like the Conservatives) take over, our dollar gains in value.

Sheesh - I just looked - it's at .70 to the US now. Worse than under Chretien and Martin !

But at least companies like Bombardier, Irving Oil, SNC Lavalin, Canadian Steamship Lines and other Liberal sponsors will be happy.

[sahibji]

Theoretically should be better for tourism,

[stevenl]

1 minute ago, sahibji said:

Theoretically should be better for tourism,

Western tourism yes, but takes a while. Since the main Thai tourism markets, Russia, China, India, are also experiencing declining currency, not much effect there.

[Hatari fan]

How can you say the baht plummets when to the most currencies it's higher than it was a year ago 

[nexus99]

In the US we are hoping to get back to 40B per dollar. That will make travel to Thailand more accessible.

[koolkarl]

Hardly plummeting.  By Thailand signing CRS agreements with many countries will drag down the baht for years.

[Nid_Noi]

2 hours ago, Kerryd said:

The Cdn $ was around 27 to one around 1 1/2 years ago (according the WISE transfers I've made).
It dropped over 3 baht to the dollar in 18 months and has barely gone up 1 baht in the last 3 months.

And that was before all the tariff nonsense.

But Thailand sets the exchange rates and pegs the baht to the US dollar so it often doesn't matter how strong our dollar is, it still gets less than the US.

When the Conservatives formed the gov't back in '06, our dollar started to recover from the years of Liberal mismanagement. At one point when Chretien and Martin were running things, the dollar dropped to it's lowest ever vs the US $ (0.72 -1) and those two were happy about it !

When Harper took over and the $ started going up, the Liberals whined that it would ruin our economy and there'd be huge job losses.
Never happened.

In fact, in '08 our dollar was trading at par with the US and our economy was fine and there were not job losses, proving just how incompetent the Liberals were. (They'd been trying to depress the value to benefit their rich buddies who paid for labour and resources in Cdn $ and sold it for US$. The weaker the Cdn $, the greater their profits.)

At one point the Cdn $ was worth $1.10 US ! (Didn't stay there long but it was a h3ll of a lot better than 0.72 !)

But !
The US $ was getting almost 37 baht and the Cdn was only getting 32 !

I was a little miffed (as in - pissed off) because I was getting paid in Cdn - wired to my Thai account. We should have been getting more baht to the dollar than the US but because Thailand set the exchange rates (instead of the markets) they deliberately kept the US $ higher.

And as long as the Liberals are running things - it will NOT get any better. Historically, every single time they form the gov't (since the end of WW2) our dollar has lost value and every time another gov't (like the Conservatives) take over, our dollar gains in value.

Sheesh - I just looked - it's at .70 to the US now. Worse than under Chretien and Martin !

But at least companies like Bombardier, Irving Oil, SNC Lavalin, Canadian Steamship Lines and other Liberal sponsors will be happy.

Remember when Canadian NHL, NBA and NFL professional players requested to be paid in US$ and some went on strike for it.

[sandyf]

On 4/4/2025 at 8:18 AM, Pouatchee said:

i am looking at the cdn $ and it hasn't been this good in quite a while. Damn I am starting to love these tariffs...

Just before the quake the £ was 43.98,  today it is 44.23.

Not what i would call a "plummet".

Insignificant compared to June 2016.

[Zakhar]

It was almost 37 THB to a $ almost a year ago.  It was consistently trading at 36 THB to a a $ at an average for 2 years.   IMHO, the THB is over valued.  Here again, who knows how all of these things will hash out eventually.  Undervalued THB is good for the Farangs:):)

[Pouatchee]

3 hours ago, Kerryd said:

And as long as the Liberals are running things - it will NOT get any better.

 

totally agree!!!

[black tabby12345]

Hi, there is a handy site where you can check the movement of the currency pair(e.g. usd-thb, eur-thb, gbp-thb, aud-thb, thb-jpy) at a glance.

 

check out on google as follows:

 

1-investing.com currency historical data usd-thb(or eur-thb, gbp-thb, aud-thb, jpy-thb)

 

 

 

2-Register that site as Your Favorite on your pc/phone/tablet.

 

Then you can see the movement of the currency pair of your interest straight away.

 

* Admin deletes if I list the whole web address here, as the Stealth Marketing(silly).

 

 

 

[helloagain]

On 4/4/2025 at 1:19 PM, maddox41 said:

The Thai B been inflated for years about time it come down  get some of there own medicine. 

Go Tariffs time for Thailand to have a good hard look at themselves and pull there head out of there Ar..  Which will never happen 

Inflated no..     manipulation yes.

 

 

 

 

[bbbbooboo]

this is good news indeed for expats in Thailand

[KhunLA]

1 hour ago, Zakhar said:

It was almost 37 THB to a $ almost a year ago.  It was consistently trading at 36 THB to a a $ at an average for 2 years.   IMHO, the THB is over valued.  Here again, who knows how all of these things will hash out eventually.  Undervalued THB is good for the Farangs:):)

Bush 2 first term was very good for me (40-45-40), great since built first house and bought 1st & 2nd car during his administrations.   Along with 24.3% COLA, (8 yr total)

 

Then Biden as best, exchange  rate & COLA @ 20.3% (4 yr total)

 

Worst starts to finish ... Obama 1, but did recover, then Trump 1, mirror Obama 1, and just a tad better, if that.

 

 

 

 

[kimothai]

7 hours ago, technoronin said:

"Plummets"?  Last year it was down to around 37:1 THB:USD.  This is just anther Trump hating writer.  34.5 is well within normal variation, it's a pity that research is optional in modern journalism.

Exactly!  The lefties just see the name Trump and they go into "car alarm" mode.  They are blinded by their hate.

[retayl]

On 4/5/2025 at 5:58 AM, captain_shane said:

I love how you leftoids all assume you're secret geniuses that could run the government far better than anyone on the right.

I love how you cult members assume anyone who criticises your leaders economic policy is a leftie! Even sensible republicans recognise the insanity of reciprocal tariffs based on trade deficits. Let me give you an example. A 47% trade tariff on Madagascar! Madagascar exports nickel & vanilla to the US. The US is not able to produce anywhere near enough of its own nickel & vanilla  requirements. Madagascar cannot import a reciprocal level of imports from the US - know why? Because there ain’t that many of them and it’s a poor f#(king country! Are you able to understand that?

[Jonathan Swift]

On 4/4/2025 at 1:16 PM, Seagull Sam said:

Let's all have a good laugh at the crazy nutjob the dumb ass Mid West put in charge of the world economy. 

It will all end in tears before bed time and the Chinese will think all their birthdays have come at once. 

I would laugh, but the stock market has tanked, hurting a lot of people along with the economy, my retirement fund has tanked, and Trump hasn't even gotten started yet. His goal is to tear down everything he can get his fried chicken and cheeseburger greasy fingers on. He is likely to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, and food benefits (I get all of the last 3 because my SS income is only $1674 a month.) And the irony is, the people who voted him in are now being screwed by their hero. The only hope is voting in a new congress in midterms, otherwise it's four more years of taking a wrecking ball to the world. hahaha 

[Jonathan Swift]

Media hysteria again. Yes the world economy will suffer, but come on - 34.5 baht to the dollar isn't anywhere near enough of a change to do anything. It was up to 38 baht not too long ago, and it seems that Thailand didn't crumble to the ground. My perspective is limited to my 12 years here, but I have the feeling that Thailand is more resilient than some people make out. After all, it has risen back out of the post Covid wasteland, and before that two coups and Thaksin/Yingluck

[palmbeachblueeyes]

To whom is a 34.5 baht alarming?  That was the government's target a number of months ago when they were urging the central bank to lower the interest rate.  It is well below the 36 that the baht was a little over a year ago. 

What should the baht be trading at?  I don't know but I urge the bank to try and stabilize it if that is possible.  I suspect it is not.  Trump/Musk have thrown the world economy into chaos.  If the bank raises interest rates to fight inflation and to stabilize a troubled baht they are likely to increase the economic hardship that the threatening economic downturn will cause and the political instability that is likely to cause.  The government is already weakened because growth is less than people want.

A world wide recession and the instability that Trump is causing will hurt Thailand's tourism business.  The loss of exports to the US will hurt all sorts of sectors of the economy especially rice sales.  A weaker baht will encourage both of those sectors but not as much as they are likely to lose.   

While all this is going on the US Fed will have to keep rates steady or higher to fight inflation putting more pressure on the baht.  I think it would not be difficult to see the baht trading for 40 in the near future.  That would help the tourism, rice, and construction businesses a little. 

 

[Seagull Sam]

16 minutes ago, Jonathan Swift said:

The only hope is voting in a new congress in midterms, otherwise it's four more years of taking a wrecking ball to the world. hahaha 

Not very hahaha at all. As Trump rules by dictat aka Presidential Decree the make up of Congress is immaterial isnnt?

It may not be too early to genuinely call Trump a fascist.

[captain_shane]

2 hours ago, retayl said:

Are you able to understand that?

I understand far better than you do pal. Go back to watching Richard Maddow.

[NickyLouie]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Swift said:

 He is likely to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, and food benefits (I get all of the last 3 because my SS income is only $1674 a month.) 

 

How can u possibly in USA on $1674 per month ?

 

How much EBT $ are you given per month ?

[Dirk Z]

On 4/4/2025 at 1:16 PM, Seagull Sam said:

Let's all have a good laugh at the crazy nutjob the dumb ass Mid West put in charge of the world economy. 

It will all end in tears before bed time and the Chinese will think all their birthdays have come at once. 

And don't forget the Russians. Putin has never been a happier man.