Central bank seeks lists of investors

Central bank seeks lists of investors

The Bank of Thailand has asked for lists of investors from financial institutions which are custodians of foreign investors as part of its efforts to monitor the baht's movements.

It did not elaborate which groups of investors are being monitored.

The baht is appreciating too fast but the central bank is keeping a close watch on the situation, Bank of Thailand governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said on the sidelines of a meeting with a working committee tasked with supervising economic policy management chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The baht, by far the strongest currency in Asia this year, yesterday broke the 29-baht level again before retreating to 29.00/04. The Bank of Japan's aggressive monetary easing _ launching open-ended asset buying and saying the monetary base would nearly double to 270 trillion yen ($2.9 trillion) by the end of 2014, aimed at beating two decades of stagnation _ has been blamed for the baht's rise.

Mr Prasarn said the prime minister had voiced concerns about the baht's rapid strengthening against the greenback and instructed agencies to seek measures to assist operators, mostly small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, who are suffering from the baht's appreciation.

The central bank has asked commercial banks to help monitor irregular capital flows and provide services such as risk management to facilitate those who may get burned by the baht's strength, he said.

Areepong Bhoocha-oom, finance permanent secretary, said the central bank and the ministry will jointly monitor capital inflows.

The ministry has requested government agencies and state enterprises to lower their offshore debt exposure and avoid securing overseas loans as measures to ease pressure on the local currency, he said.

The ministry has also had talks with the BoT about further loosening regulations on outbound Thai investment, Mr Areepong said without elaborating.

He said he is not worried about the flood of capital inflow as most of it had been invested in government bonds.

In a related development, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said the ministry will convene a meeting with the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) to discuss ways to alleviate the impact of the baht's rise. The meeting is expected to be held after the long Songkran holiday.

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