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Central bank: No need for more measures to oversee baht

BANGKOK: -- The Bank of Thailand (BoT) sees no need to issue additional measures to oversee the baht value although the currency has strengthened by 9.46 per cent to 30.76 to the US dollar September 1-24 compared with the same period last year, according the central bank’s chief economist.

Mathee Supapongse, director of the BoT Domestic Economy Department, said the bank had done nothing wrong regarding the baht movement and therefore sees as unnecessary more measures to oversee it.

Still, the bank closely watches foreign capital inflow into the country.

He said that economic conditions in August continued expanding satisfactorily although the production and export sectors grew at a slower pace.

Exports in August increased 23.6 per cent to US$16.29 million, down from the 41.8 per cent growth in the second quarter of this year.

The demand for purchase orders from trading partners had slowed following the baht's recent rapid rise.

It is expected that Thailand's exports will subsequently decrease ikn value on a seasonal basis in some months, even though imports totaled $15.44 billion, up 41.8 per cent in all categories from the previous month.

Simultaneously, private consumption and investment increased as seen in the rise in the business confidence index in the three months ahead to 56.7 from 55.7 the month before.

Tourism had also picked up with the number of foreign tourists reaching 1.26 million, up 10.3 per cent from the same month last year, he said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2010-10-01