Question On Finance Vocabulary For The Experts

[makavelithedon]

Hi all,

Wondered if some of you could tell me the difference in regard a few monetary policy words used in Thailand compared to western banks in general use.

I was trying to find what the basic bank of Thailand base rate is and couldn't believe how difficult it was on google to get anything that looked remotely like it. The US, UK and Australian rates came up in about a miilisecond of searching, but all I could find in regards the Thai bank was the 'one day repurchase rate @ 3.25%. Is this the same thing? If so why is it calculated as daily and not as a simple 'central bank base rate'?

Having casually noticed the rates displayed for a normal Thai for savings and mortgages yesterday whilst in the bank why do you think rates for savings at just over 2% and mortgages at a scandalous 7%?

Furthermore, although I'm used to terms such as 'underlying inflation' the Thai bank uses 'core' and 'headline' rates with huge disparity between the two.

Your explanations on the differences would be appreciated.

Mak