The Thai baht fell the most in more than a week on concern economic weakness in Europe and China will hurt the Southeast Asian nation’s exports. Bonds gained.
The currency snapped a four-day gain before a report today that economists forecast will show retail sales in the euro area shrank the most in four months in August, according to a Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing contracted a second month in September in China, Thailand's largest export market, according to figures released this week. Weaker exports may hurt consumption and investment in the longer term, Bank of Thailand governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said on Sept 26.
"Market sentiment is quite weak, weighing on regional currencies," said Tohru Nishihama, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc in Tokyo. "Investors remain bearish on the outlook for the Chinese economy and that is negative for countries that depend on China for their exports. It’s hard to aggressively take riskier positions in this environment."
The baht slumped 0.3%, the most since Sept 24, to 30.73 per US dollar as of 8.25am in Bangkok, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency touched 30.63 earlier, the strongest level since March. One-month implied volatility, a measure of exchange-rate swings used to price options, was unchanged at 4.27%.
Thai exports fell 5.1% in August from a year earlier after having decreased 3.9% the previous month, according to official figures. China bought 11.9% of goods shipped from Thailand in the first eight months of this year, while Europe accounted for 8.6%.
The yield on the 3.65% bonds due December 2021 fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.43%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.