Thailand responds to being put on US currency watch list

Illustrative image (Photo: https://thethaiger.com/)

Bangkok (VNA) – The central bank of Thailand (BoT)  said on December 17 it did not see a big impact on foreign trade and investment from being put on a US currency watch list.

The bank also held that such assessment would not impede its ability to conduct macroeconomic policies to safeguard domestic stability.

The comment came after Washington put Thailand on its watch list of countries suspected of taking measures to weaken their currencies against the dollar.

Besides Thailand, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan (China), Malaysia and India are also on the list.

Assistant governor Chantavarn Sucharitakul said in a statement that the BoT had conducted two-way intervention only to ride out baht volatility and had no intention to do use the exchange rate to gain an unfair trade advantage and competitiveness over trading partners.

The BoT has been in close dialogue with the US administration to foster an understanding of Thailand’s macroeconomic and financial conditions, and had also reiterated its commitment to exchange rate flexibility, she said.

The Thai baht rose 0.6 percent to 29.82 per US dollar, breaching the psychological 30 level and at the strongest since May 2013./.