Devalue Thailand baht

[Sean Moran]

People who earn their money in Thailand and spend it in Thailand on purely Thai goods or services aren’t greatly affected by a high valued Baht. However, if they spend it on foreign goods or services, or goods or services that have a significant foreign input (air travel and oil based products come to mind), they will be affected.

POSITIVELY HAPPILY AFFECTED!

Those who live off income from outside Thailand and spend it in Thailand are adversely affected by the higher value Baht.

People who work in Thailand and do send money home will benefit from a higher valued Baht, as Sean suggested. However, these people are more likely to be from poorer countries (for example India, the Philippines, Myanmar) where salaries are lower than in Thailand. I would guess that very few farangs send money home from Thailand as Thai salaries are poor compared to those in Western countries.

Speculation at its best.

Few farangs go to Thailand to make their fortune.

For the last ten years it's meant saving 50% more baht than what was NATURAL at 20:1 but if things can be restored back to normality at last after the currency crisis then don't forget that for every satang you save now you will be able to afford to live for another 14.357 seconds *** when you retire back in your homeland.

<*** totally imaginary statistics >

[jhcusa]

By: BangkokPost Published: 3/06/2009 at 02:41 PM
BoT curbs strong baht
The Bank of Thailand has intervened in the foreign exchange market after the value of Thai baht in the past eight months strengthened continually due to the weakening US dollar.
BoT assistant governor Suchada Kirakul said on Wednesday that the central bank had to restrain the appreciated value of baht.
However, she insisted the baht's movement was in line with other regional currencies.
The BoT had bought dollars in the foreign exchange market to maintain the baht's value at 34.02 baht per dollar, Mrs Suchada said.
The Thai currency hit an eight-month high at 33.98 baht per US dollar on Wednesday morning.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... trong-baht

The BOT have been buying US$ for the last 8 months converting THB into US$ when the baht finally crashes their US$s will be worth for a lot more baht than they paid for them.
They haven't been curbing it, they have been maintaining it at US$34. This article contradicts itself..
Keeping the baht in line with other regional currencies is a red herring and has nothing to do with the case.
The big losers with this policy have been the Thai economy, exporters, tourists and resident expats.
The BIG winners are the people who had lots of baht and you can have a pretty good guess as to who they are

It seems you understand what happens. So the BoT buy expensive dollars to pump up the bath. The Government then borrows bath in the banks.Dollars seems to decline so the bath keeps staying up but what happens with all this dollars they have in reserves falling in value in your opinion?

[jhcusa]

It seems you understand what happens. So the BoT buy expensive dollars to pump up the bath. The Government then borrows bahthin the banks.Dollars seems to decline so the bath keeps staying up but what happens with all this dollars they have in reserves falling in value in your opinion?

Read it again carefully this time, the BoT is using strong baht to buy cheap US$ so that when the US$ gets strong again (as it will) and/or the THB revalues (as it must) they will be able to buy back the THB at a much lower rate and finish up with a massive US$ surplus.
From some of the comments here it is apparent that very few have a grasp of exactly what's going on and how it is affecting normal everyday life in Thailand but I can tell you this Only currency speculators will win
Everyone else and I mean Thai exporters (rice, rubber, prawn, sugar cane, fruit and flowers etc.), the tourist industry (hotels, restaurants, bars etc.) and the resident expats (including their extended families) are suffering and as a result the whole of the Thai economy is paying the price.

You are spot on with currency speculators,thats got to be right. But if it was going like they are writing speculators would need a new job(propaganda)
According to the world outside of here a dollar decline is very likely to happen and not as you mention "a strong US again" and there can easily be a queue for returns of reserves in dollars with all Asian countries wanting something in return ,thats how I see the smokesigns. "Buy back thaibath" but its not a common reservecurrency then you have no reserves. Do like
China they bought a branch from General Motors for 500.000.000 dollars. at least you have something.

[GORDON]

Speaking as an expat Brit. I am sure the U.S. Dollar will recover [I would prefer it not to get too strong for obvious reasons] . America is a unique country in that they mostly pull together in a spot, they have the ability and the political will, they will recover. They have a proven track record in their ability to come back , and a lot of people will be missing the grants that they have made globaly in the past. There will be cutbacks, there are more Americans holidaying at home and it is now very cheap for many countries to visit there. Americans are now being encouraged to buy American goods, and they will, they will cut their imports and still sell their goods abroad, perhaps not in the same quantaties as before. American exports are of good quality for the most part, another reason why they will return. Britain will find the path much harder, our manufacturing industry is almost nonexistant these days while America is still strong in that.----------------------------------------------------As for Thailand with everyone looking out for themselves and pulling in opposite directions it is obvious that when the crash comes it will take a miracle to sort out the mess. I am very lucky to have very good pensions [ not really luck - I paid for them ] and will survive with no problems but I am worried for my many Thai friends who do not even have job security thanks to the current conditions , they have families to care for and unlike the Bkk elite do not have money in the bank to tide them over. In these present times the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, even the so called middle class are getting squeezed, the divide between rich and poor is getting greater.

[Sean Moran]

by GORDON on Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:33 pm [118.175.205.xx]
Speaking as an expat Brit. I am sure the U.S. Dollar will recover [I would prefer it not to get too strong for obvious reasons] . America is a unique country in that they mostly pull together in a spot, they have the ability and the political will, they will recover. They have a proven track record in their ability to come back , and a lot of people will be missing the grants that they have made globaly in the past. There will be cutbacks, there are more Americans holidaying at home and it is now very cheap for many countries to visit there. Americans are now being encouraged to buy American goods, and they will, they will cut their imports and still sell their goods abroad, perhaps not in the same quantaties as before. American exports are of good quality for the most part, another reason why they will return. Britain will find the path much harder, our manufacturing industry is almost nonexistant these days while America is still strong in that.----------------------------------------------------As for Thailand with everyone looking out for themselves and pulling in opposite directions it is obvious that when the crash comes it will take a miracle to sort out the mess. I am very lucky to have very good pensions [ not really luck - I paid for them ] and will survive with no problems but I am worried for my many Thai friends who do not even have job security thanks to the current conditions , they have families to care for and unlike the Bkk elite do not have money in the bank to tide them over. In these present times the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, even the so called middle class are getting squeezed, the divide between rich and poor is getting greater.

GORDON, if you go back to page four of this thread and look at the figures from 1996 and now, I'm sure you'll come to the conclusion that the gap between rich and poor is actually getting lesser, but we're only half way there.

[GORDON]

Any fool knows figures are massaged, use your eyes and ears. You do not live here , so perhaps next time you visit [ if you can afford to that is ] perhaps you will travel around and talk or listen to the real people. We who actually do live here full time know better. Remember too that I am talking about the current position , for which there will be no figures. The money is not here now nor is it likely to improve for a considerable time. You have no idea just how bad it is for the poorer Thais , or perhaps you just don't care. Nowhere in any of your posts have I read one word of sympathy for them , you remind me of the qu**n in Alice in Wonderland who said 'let them eat cake' when she was told the poor had no bread

[Sean Moran]

GORDON, I took all of those figures exaxtly off http://www.xe.com and went to the trouble of colourising the different time-periods and then "massaging" the whole lot into a national/currency specific order, on the spot, on the day, in six edit minutes, just so that absolute fools and greedy wankers could understand how their so called "losses" are actually "wins-by-not-so-much" so read the frigging news or STFU!

[Sean Moran]

LIterary note: Didn't that \\ //// say "Off with their heads." I think it was some French \\ //// who is supposed to have said the other.

It was Mary Anntoinette

No it wasn't. She was the "Let them eat cake" Qu.

"Off with their heads" was the Qu of Hearts, wasn't it? From Wonderland where Cheshire came from. The Land of Cheshire Smiles.

[Sean Moran]

[jhcusa]

Speaking as an expat Brit. I am sure the U.S. Dollar will recover [I would prefer it not to get too strong for obvious reasons] . America is a unique country in that they mostly pull together in a spot, they have the ability and the political will, they will recover. They have a proven track record in their ability to come back , and a lot of people will be missing the grants that they have made globaly in the past. There will be cutbacks, there are more Americans holidaying at home and it is now very cheap for many countries to visit there. Americans are now being encouraged to buy American goods, and they will, they will cut their imports and still sell their goods abroad, perhaps not in the same quantaties as before. American exports are of good quality for the most part, another reason why they will return. Britain will find the path much harder, our manufacturing industry is almost nonexistant these days while America is still strong in that.----------------------------------------------------As for Thailand with everyone looking out for themselves and pulling in opposite directions it is obvious that when the crash comes it will take a miracle to sort out the mess. I am very lucky to have very good pensions [ not really luck - I paid for them ] and will survive with no problems but I am worried for my many Thai friends who do not even have job security thanks to the current conditions , they have families to care for and unlike the Bkk elite do not have money in the bank to tide them over. In these present times the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, even the so called middle class are getting squeezed, the divide between rich and poor is getting greater.

Nice to meet you Gordon and I have no reason to put on a sharp tone as most people seems to like in this Forum. We will
see how strong the dollar will be when you produce governmentcars, your neighbour is unemployed, cant pay your house and cannot get credit. Countries that went for the headfake to buy dollars the last 8 month have just seen that the dollar is back on track downwards and so the oil goes up again. I agree Thailand is a mixed bag but they produce rawmaterials and can wait for Brazil and China to pick up their domestic standards. China already picked up an increase of retailsales in april ,during an exportcrisis, of 15 per cent thats a huge figure right there.