Baht Heads South

[dick turpin]

at close of play in the UK today the baht was quoted at 70bht to the

glorious pound and still going down. Was it but a couple of weeks ago

that we had a whole bunch of posters crying into their chang about how

they could not survive exchange rates of 65bht to the pound - a week is a

long time in politics - in the currency markets it is an eternity

[tuky]

Nice handle I would consider changing it if I was you.

each to their own I guess.

I am pleased, it means my wage this month (paid in pounds to a Thai bank in baht) will increase by about 30k baht.

We got used to the 77 baht xchange rate, 67 was hard to take.

I would love to see it at 100 baht/pound for one day each month.

[chonabot]

I remember back in the late 80's when it was 35 to the pound, now that was scary.....

[Thaipwriter]

at close of play in the UK today the baht was quoted at 70bht to the

glorious pound and still going down. Was it but a couple of weeks ago

that we had a whole bunch of posters crying into their chang about how

they could not survive exchange rates of 65bht to the pound - a week is a

long time in politics - in the currency markets it is an eternity

I checked the rate every day and it has never been below 67, so where do you get 65 from?

Close of play today would get you between 69.2 and 69.7 depending on where you send your TT.

The Pound used to be glorious but the Euro is more resilient these days.

The USD will implode sooner than Thai Baht

[chonabot]

Is there a website that shows the history of exchange rates?

I'm having a slow day at work.......

[tyler2uk]

I am pleased, it means my wage this month (paid in pounds to a Thai bank in baht) will increase by about 30k baht.

However do you make ends met tuky...

[usatrader]

Is there a website that shows the history of exchange rates?

I'm having a slow day at work.......

Yes, Here is your site for historical data 16 years back

The Sterling has had an average Bhat to sterling rate of 54.197 over the last 16 years, with a high of 76.011 in Dec 2004 and a low of 36.72 in Jan 1990.

The US Dollar has had an average Bhat to dollar rate of 33.384 over the last 16 years, with a high of 54.7 in Jan 1998 and a low of 20.66 in Jan 1981.

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

[soap]

Is there a website that shows the history of exchange rates?

I'm having a slow day at work.......

Yes, Here is your site for historical data 16 years back

The Sterling has had an average Bhat to sterling rate of 54.197 over the last 16 years, with a high of 76.011 in Dec 2004 and a low of 36.72 in Jan 1990.

The US Dollar has had an average Bhat to dollar rate of 33.384 over the last 16 years, with a high of 54.7 in Jan 1998 and a low of 20.66 in Jan 1981.

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

hello usatrader

im afraid you are wrong when you say the sterling high was 76.011in dec2004.

i have a receit in my house showing i changed 500 pound cash at the rate of 89.6 without digging the receit out i think i changed the cash in january 1998.

i had been brought up on 36-40 to the pound so you can imagine i was like a kid in a free grotto when i returned to find the rate had gone up so much

[terdsak_12]

When I came here is '93 I changed my vast fortune at 36 Baht to the Pound.

[taxexile]

aye lad , when i first came here you could 'av 10 bowls of rice , half a dozen beers , get a taxi to the thermae and have an all nighter with a coupla lively lasses and still get change from a 5 baht note.

[usatrader]

hello usatrader

im afraid you are wrong when you say the sterling high was 76.011in dec2004.

i have a receit in my house showing i changed 500 pound cash at the rate of 89.6 without digging the receit out i think i changed the cash in january 1998.

i had been brought up on 36-40 to the pound so you can imagine i was like a kid in a free grotto when i returned to find the rate had gone up so much

Thank you. Actually I went back and researched it and found I made two mistakes. One, I gave the wrong URL link and second that the Jan 1998 amount you mention appears correct, as my sources, which I overlooked, shows a monthly average for Jan 1998 at 86.624670.

Corrected Historical data link

5,May 2006- 69.934346

The Sterling has had an average Bhat to Sterling rate of 54.197 over the last 16 years, with an monthly avg high of 86.624670 in Jan 1998 and a monthly avg low of 36.72 in Jan 1990.

5,May 2006 -37.750700

The US Dollar has had an average Bhat to dollar rate of 33.384 over the last 16 years, with a high of 54.7 in Jan 1998 and a low of 20.66 in Jan 1981.

5,May, 2006- 47.958407

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

[Maigo6]

aye lad , when i first came here you could 'av 10 bowls of rice , half a dozen beers , get a taxi to the thermae and have an all nighter with a coupla lively lasses and still get change from a 5 baht note.

Luxury!

[samran]

aye lad , when i first came here you could 'av 10 bowls of rice , half a dozen beers , get a taxi to the thermae and have an all nighter with a coupla lively lasses and still get change from a 5 baht note.

Luxury!

You mean Loog-xury

[ilyushin]

hello usatrader

im afraid you are wrong when you say the sterling high was 76.011in dec2004.

i have a receit in my house showing i changed 500 pound cash at the rate of 89.6 without digging the receit out i think i changed the cash in january 1998.

i had been brought up on 36-40 to the pound so you can imagine i was like a kid in a free grotto when i returned to find the rate had gone up so much

Thank you. Actually I went back and researched it and found I made two mistakes. One, I gave the wrong URL link and second that the Jan 1998 amount you mention appears correct, as my sources, which I overlooked, shows a monthly average for Jan 1998 at 86.624670.

Corrected Historical data link

5,May 2006- 69.934346

The Sterling has had an average Bhat to Sterling rate of 54.197 over the last 16 years, with an monthly avg high of 86.624670 in Jan 1998 and a monthly avg low of 36.72 in Jan 1990.

5,May 2006 -37.750700

The US Dollar has had an average Bhat to dollar rate of 33.384 over the last 16 years, with a high of 54.7 in Jan 1998 and a low of 20.66 in Jan 1981.

5,May, 2006- 47.958407

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

Good job! Appreciate the fast facts.

[sfokevin]

What happened in 7/1997 to cause the Baht to drop and stay at such a low level?

Edited May 6, 2006 by sfokevin

[Carmine6]

If I'm not mistaken, the Euro has only been around since 1999, not 16 years.

hello usatrader

im afraid you are wrong when you say the sterling high was 76.011in dec2004.

i have a receit in my house showing i changed 500 pound cash at the rate of 89.6 without digging the receit out i think i changed the cash in january 1998.

i had been brought up on 36-40 to the pound so you can imagine i was like a kid in a free grotto when i returned to find the rate had gone up so much

Thank you. Actually I went back and researched it and found I made two mistakes. One, I gave the wrong URL link and second that the Jan 1998 amount you mention appears correct, as my sources, which I overlooked, shows a monthly average for Jan 1998 at 86.624670.

Corrected Historical data link

5,May 2006- 69.934346

The Sterling has had an average Bhat to Sterling rate of 54.197 over the last 16 years, with an monthly avg high of 86.624670 in Jan 1998 and a monthly avg low of 36.72 in Jan 1990.

5,May 2006 -37.750700

The US Dollar has had an average Bhat to dollar rate of 33.384 over the last 16 years, with a high of 54.7 in Jan 1998 and a low of 20.66 in Jan 1981.

5,May, 2006- 47.958407

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

Edited May 6, 2006 by Carmine6

[wasabi]

Here's a chart I made in Excel based on that website's data.

Edited May 6, 2006 by wasabi

[soap]

When I came here is '93 I changed my vast fortune at 36 Baht to the Pound.

hello andy

i also changed a lot of money about the time you changed yours, but if you remember we were getting 12to16% interest whitch sofened the blow every 3 months with a fixed deposit account.

when the bubble burst, and it shot up to 90 to the pound i had just arrived back with a bundle of sterling the first thing i did was to go down to bangkok and buy a car from union auction i think it was the first car auction to be held in bangkok due to the finance companies going broke.

[GuestHouse]

I don't recall anyone whinging that they could not survive. I do however remember the discussion on the long term impact of currency fluctuations on people living on fixed incomes.

As the OP says, a week is a long time in the currency markets... 30 years or more of retirement on a fixed income is even longer.

The underlying problems with the Dollar, the Euro and the Pound have not changed.

Those who are budgetting their retirement based on a Bht50/BGP are making a sound finacial plan.

The same discussion included consideration on the impact of inflation... and that is not getting any better.

[soap]

What happened in 7/1997 to cause the Baht to drop and stay at such a low level?

hello stokevin

in one word corruption , the bank managers were lending money to people to build shop houses in the middle of nowhere, they gave money to builders who only needed a name to say they wanted to buy the house never taking into account if the person whose name was used had the means to pay the 15%plus interest on the loan, never mind to start paying the initial loan off.

the bubble had to burst and when it did only the i m f pulled them out, but what frightens me these same bank managers that took the bribes are still in the same job

[Guest endure]

It was slightly more complicated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_financial_crisis

[terdsak_12]

When I came here is '93 I changed my vast fortune at 36 Baht to the Pound.

hello andy

i also changed a lot of money about the time you changed yours, but if you remember we were getting 12to16% interest whitch sofened the blow every 3 months with a fixed deposit account.

when the bubble burst, and it shot up to 90 to the pound i had just arrived back with a bundle of sterling the first thing i did was to go down to bangkok and buy a car from union auction i think it was the first car auction to be held in bangkok due to the finance companies going broke.

Well I invested all my money in beer and birds, so the returns weren't very good.

Hope you got a good motor from the auction!!

[jamman]

I am pleased, it means my wage this month (paid in pounds to a Thai bank in baht) will increase by about 30k baht.

However do you make ends met tuky...

Tyler, can you please contact me? I've been trying to reach you for a week.

[Rinrada]

When I came here is '93 I changed my vast fortune at 36 Baht to the Pound.

hello andy

i also changed a lot of money about the time you changed yours, but if you remember we were getting 12to16% interest whitch sofened the blow every 3 months with a fixed deposit account.

when the bubble burst, and it shot up to 90 to the pound i had just arrived back with a bundle of sterling the first thing i did was to go down to bangkok and buy a car from union auction i think it was the first car auction to be held in bangkok due to the finance companies going broke.

It was january 1998 and the peg between the baht and the US greenback was chopped...

Money had been borrowed @ approx 24 bt/US$ and then the banks called in the outstanding dosh at the new rate......o dear dear @50

the expression that then became the buzz words was "Non performing loans..."poss following on from "creative accountancy."...results were the same.....Thailand was up for SALE....

Time period: 01/11/98 to 01/30/98.

Daily averages: 01/11/1998 85.91890

01/12/1998 90.08220

01/13/1998 91.19950

01/14/1998 86.64510

01/15/1998 86.54370

01/16/1998 87.03520

01/17/1998 85.0980

01/18/1998 84.42610

01/19/1998 86.56560

01/20/1998 86.8650

01/21/1998 86.80040

01/22/1998 89.36060

01/23/1998 90.64730

01/24/1998 91.0150

01/25/1998 91.36920

01/26/1998 91.35040

01/27/1998 90.09480

01/28/1998 89.76790

01/29/1998 90.10740

01/30/1998 88.41420

Average (20 days): 88.46533

High: 91.36920

Low: 84.42610

oanda

[Gary A]

I'm still in a healthy surplus situation. When I decided to retire here the baht was 25 to a dollar. Anything over that is really a bonus. The baht weakened quickly the last couple of business days so it will be interesting to see what happens this week. I might add that after the crash it was tempting to retire earlier but I tend to be very conservative so I resisted the thought.

I am enjoying spending my monthly dividends and still have not needed to dip into my retirement funds. Life is good!

[jamman]

I am pleased, it means my wage this month (paid in pounds to a Thai bank in baht) will increase by about 30k baht.

However do you make ends met tuky...

If anyone can please help me get in touch with tyler2uk, or Ian Bolty or Clive Waldhurst from thai-confidential.com please let me know asap. We have some important and outstanding financial business, and all attempts at contact for 8 days have failed - so I hope that since he is still active on Thaivisa he can be contacted.

[LaoPo]

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

The Euro was introduced on January 1, 2002; so the information is not correct!

However there was a 'paper'-Euro conversion rate used by banks etc. prior to the official introduction in 2002.

LaoPo

[TRIPxCORE]

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

The Euro was introduced on January 1, 2002; so the information is not correct!

However there was a 'paper'-Euro conversion rate used by banks etc. prior to the official introduction in 2002.

LaoPo

No, no, he might be correct LaoPo. The official paper currency did come out when you said it did but banks and governments were keeping track of electronic Euro rates for a long time now. Not sure how long, but I know the Euro has been trading for quite some time electronically. Way before the official paper currency came out. I remember reading something about this. I dont know all the details but this might be what the person was referring to.

[LaoPo]

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

The Euro was introduced on January 1, 2002; so the information is not correct!

However there was a 'paper'-Euro conversion rate used by banks etc. prior to the official introduction in 2002.

LaoPo

No, no, he might be correct LaoPo. The official paper currency did come out when you said it did but banks and governments were keeping track of electronic Euro rates for a long time now. Not sure how long, but I know the Euro has been trading for quite some time electronically. Way before the official paper currency came out. I remember reading something about this. I dont know all the details but this might be what the person was referring to.

Well, we're both right and wrong

When I said 'paper' I didn't mean the real money but merely the interbanking rates that were handled. Sorry for that.

Here's the full history on the Euro if someone is interested.

In 1992 during the famous 'Maastricht/Netherlands' meeting the countries who were to join the Euro signed a treaty and fixed the rates from Country rate to Euro rate. (Not all EU members joined the Euro as you know).

The actual 'cash' was introduced on January 1, 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro#History_.281990-2002.29

A map of the Euro-countries (and which are coming soon):

LaoPo

Edited May 8, 2006 by LaoPo

[moonoi]

The Euro has had an average Bhat to Euro rate of 42.827 over the last 16 years, with a high of 53.18 in Dec 2004 and a low of 37.012 in Jan 2000.

The Euro was introduced on January 1, 2002; so the information is not correct!

However there was a 'paper'-Euro conversion rate used by banks etc. prior to the official introduction in 2002.

LaoPo

No, no, he might be correct LaoPo. The official paper currency did come out when you said it did but banks and governments were keeping track of electronic Euro rates for a long time now. Not sure how long, but I know the Euro has been trading for quite some time electronically. Way before the official paper currency came out. I remember reading something about this. I dont know all the details but this might be what the person was referring to.

Well, we're both right and wrong

When I said 'paper' I didn't mean the real money but merely the interbanking rates that were handled. Sorry for that.

Here's the full history on the Euro if someone is interested.

In 1992 during the famous 'Maastricht/Netherlands' meeting the countries who were to join the Euro signed a treaty and fixed the rates from Country rate to Euro rate. (Not all EU members joined the Euro as you know).

The actual 'cash' was introduced on January 1, 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro#History_.281990-2002.29

A map of the Euro-countries (and which are coming soon):

LaoPo

Well actually its a little more complicated than that. And involves the ERM (Exchange Rate Mechanism), ECU (European Currency Unit), EMU (Economic and monetary Union) and the Maastrict Treaty which defined EMU for Europe. So a bit of history for you

The ERM gave currencies a central exchange rate against the Ecu. That, in turn, gave them central cross-rates against one another.It was hoped that the mechanism would help stabilise exchange rates, encourage trade within Europe and control inflation. The ERM gave national currencies an upper and lower limit on either side of this central rate within which they could fluctuate. In 1992 the ERM was wrenched apart when a number of currencies could no longer keep within these limits.

On what became known as Black Wednesday, the British pound was forced to leave the system. The Italian lira also left and the Spanish peseta was devaluated. As EMU progressed, a currency's ability to stay within its margins became one of the convergence criteria deciding its suitability to join the single currency and complete monetary union.

The ECU was the first quasi-currency for Europe. Together with the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) it formed the European Monetary System which was established in 1979. It was originally an accounting unit for the community's internal budget, but later it became more like a real currency - for example it was used in travellers' cheques and bank deposits, though it was never issued as a note or coin. As economic and monetary union developed, it formed the basis for the development of the Euro, the EU's single currency.

The process of bringing the economies of the EU member states into line, with the ultimate aim of introducing a single currency, is known as economic and monetary union (EMU). Roy Jenkins launched the first step towards this goal when, as Commission President in 1979 he launched the European Monetary System. This consisted of the ECU - an artificial currency unit - and the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which tied European exchange rates together. EMU proper was initiated by the Delors Report, which became the basis for the Maastricht Treaty. This laid out three stages towards building a single European currency:

Stage 1 July 1990 - Dec 1993:

Free movement of capital

Narrowing of ERM band

Closer co-operation between central banks

Closer co-ordination of economic policies

Stage 2 Jan 1994 - Dec 1998:

Convergence of member states' economic and monetary policies

Establishment of European Central Bank

Independence of national banks

Participating countries fix their exchange rates

Stage 3 Jan 1999 onwards

Introduction of single currency as an electronic currency

Launch of euro notes and coins

In many countries, the Maastricht Treaty faced strong opposition and in the end Denmark and the UK won opt-outs from stage 3 of EMU.

But not all the countries, which wanted to join the single currency were allowed to do so - they had to meet strict rules, the so-called convergence criteria, to be eligible.

In 1998 it was decided that 11 of the 15 member states would go ahead with full monetary union - leaving Denmark, Greece, Sweden and the UK outside the eurozone.

In January 1999, financial markets within these 11 countries began operating in euros, as the single currency had come to be known. Two years later, Greece finally met the economic requirements for membership and joined the eurozone in January 2001.

EMU reached the end of its long road when, at the beginning of 2002, Euro coins and notes became legal tender and national currencies will became obsolete.

So in terms of the Euro it didn't exists until the 1st January 1999 in electronic form, and 1st Jan 2002 for paper. So there is only 8 years of available data for the real Euro. Anything before that is not the Euro as it currently stands but probably the ECU which just to make clear again isn't the same thing