Baht drops most in 3 months | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

The baht fell the most in three months on Friday after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke dented hopes for further economic stimulus, sending most regional stock markets lower.

The baht was trading late Friday in Bangkok at 31.68/70 to the dollar, compared with 31.49/51 on Thursday. It touched 31.76 earlier in the day, its weakest since early March. Testifying before Congress in Washington, Mr Bernanke on Thursday said the Fed would need to assess economic conditions before deciding if a third round of so-called quantitative easing (QE3 in market shorthand) is needed.China, meanwhile, cut its benchmark interest rates on Friday for the first time since 2008. Beijing will release inflation and output figures on Saturday and they are expected to reinforce the belief that the economy is slowing more rapidly than expected because of global weakness."There are still jitters on the global front and at best the US wants to keep the QE3 possibility vague for now," said Enrico Tanuwidjaja, a Singapore-based currency analyst with Maybank."The market expects some bad data out of China and currencies of export-driven economies like Thailand will be affected."Traders and analysts have been...