Thai baht rises by 3% against USD over the last month

The Thai baht and other regional currencies were hit hard in March due to the increasingly growing number of Covid-19 reported cases in the region. It was still early days in the USA before the wave of new infections hit the country.

Thailand’s current account surplus fell sharply to $700 million in March, compared to a surplus of $5.4 billion in February.

“The surplus may fall to zero if the pandemic lingers,” said Don Nakornthab, Senior Director at the Bank of Thailand.

He also noted that capital flowed out of Thailand in March, largely due to foreign investors continuing to sell both equities and Thai government bonds, resulting in capital and financial deficit of $3.1 billion compared to a deficit of $4.4 billion in February.

“Tourism is usually the largest source of current account surplus, which was worth $37.9 billion last year with 39.7 million arrivals generating hard currency income for Thailand. Tourism dropped 76.4% in March and is expected to drop down to 99% in April.”

“The baht has also been less volatile in recent days as investors have seen indications that Thailand may have been successful in combating the outbreak as new confirmed cases have been down to a single digit for four days in a row.”

SOURCE: Nation Thailand

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