Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has made measures to counteract the baht’s (THB) decline as the local currency hit a nine-month low.
To curb the local currency’s rapid retreat against the greenback, the central bank decided to sell the US dollar to smooth out the THB value.
As of mid-July, THB, which was the second-best performing currency in Asia last year, depreciated around 2 percent to 33.26 THB to the dollar.
The bank’s data reported foreign reserves fell from 216 billion USD (7.22 trillion baht) in March to 207 billion USD in June.
The BoT attributed the baht’s depreciation to tighter currency policies in major economies, as well as trade conflicts between the US, China, and the European Union.
Thailand’s GDP growth expanded to a five-year high of 4.8 percent during the first quarter of 2018, higher than the 4 percent recorded in the last quarter of the previous year.
The BoT’s Monetary Policy Committee raised this year’s forecast growth rate from 4.1 percent to 4.4 percent. -VNA
VNA
