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By Linda Khoo Hui Li<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Bernama) — The Bank of Thailand\u2019s\n(BoT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has expressed concern over the rapid\nappreciation of the baht and will consider necessary measures to\nensure the exchange rate movements will not be an obstacle to economic\nrecovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to minutes of its policy meeting on\nNov 18 published Wednesday, the committee would closely monitor\ndevelopments in foreign exchange markets and capital flows as well as consider\nthe necessity of implementing additional appropriate measures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The baht traded at 30.22 per U.S dollar at 2.45 pm (local\ntime) after hitting a more than 10-month high of 30.13 on Nov 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Nov 18, MPC unanimously voted to maintain the\nbenchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5 per cent for a fourth\nstraight meeting to preserve the limited policy space and act at the\nappropriate and most effective time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It said the baht faced short-term challenges from capital\ninflows to emerging markets (EMs), including Thailand, due to continued\nmonetary policy easing in many countries as well as risk-on sentiment in the\nglobal financial markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The committee assessed that although the potential benefits\nof positive news on the COVID-19 vaccine and economic policies of the\nUnited States president-elect had yet to be realised, capital inflows resulted\nin the baht appreciation that could weigh on the economic recovery in the\nperiod ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn addition, long-term structural challenges of low\ninvestment which caused high and persistent current account surplus, together\nwith the home bias behaviour of Thai investors would continuously add pressures\nfor the baht to appreciate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe committee thus deemed appropriate to consider the\nnecessity of implementing additional appropriate measures for both the short\nand long terms,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The BoT will hold a briefing on Dec 9 to unveil additional\nmeasures to contain the baht after announcing a series of steps last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the committee said political uncertainties which\ncould affect consumer and investor confidence and progress of protocols for\nadmitting foreign tourists, as well as progress on the COVID-19\nvaccine, could pose risks to the Thai economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It said heightened vulnerabilities in financial positions of\nhouseholds and businesses following the phase-out of the supporting\nmeasures also posed challenges to the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since mid-July, anti-government protesters have staged\ndemonstrations in Bangkok demanding for political change, including the\nresignation of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha and dissolution\nof Parliament, rewriting of the Constitution and bringing reform to the\nmonarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thailand\u2019s economy contracted at a slower pace in the third\nquarter (Q3) of this year as a result of improvements in total exports of goods\nand services, private investment and private final consumption expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data released today by state planning agency, National\nEconomic and Social Development Council showed that the country\u2019s gross\ndomestic product (GDP) shrank by 6.4 per cent, recovering from a fall of 12.1\nin Q2, the sharpest fall in more than two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BoT forecasts the economy to shrink 7.8 per cent this year\ncompared to the previous forecast of 8.1 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n — BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Linda Khoo Hui Li BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Bernama) — The Bank of Thailand\u2019s (BoT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has expressed concern over the rapid appreciation of the baht and will consider necessary measures to ensure the exchange rate movements will not be an obstacle to economic recovery. According to minutes of its policy meeting on Nov 18 published Wednesday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":25813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,300],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104237"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}