The central bank next week will unveil measures for further liberalisation of the foreign-exchange market, facilitating greater outflows to help ease pressure on the baht.”2009 was a challenging year …
Risks persist, though, on fragile global economic recovery,” Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase told a BOT-sponsored conference yesterday.”Capital flows will be more volatile this year. Funds will flow to countries that witness fast recovery. We saw the signals that pressured the baht late last year.
Excessive inflows can lead to asset bubbles if we’re not careful.”Aside from liberalisation, which will also support Thai companies’ relocation of labour-intensive activities elsewhere, currency-hedging tools will be offered to entrepreneurs, in order to ensure reasonable cost.Last year, Thailand welcomed net capital inflows of US$22.6 billion Bt748 billion: $20 billion as trade surplus, $1.5 billion through the bond market and $1.1 billion through the stock market. Inflows boosted foreign reserves, which stood at $134.7 billion as of last November, up from $85.1 billion at the end of 2007.
via BOT further liberalises forex market .
