A Weakening Baht Raises Fears for Thai Outflows

The dollar rose against most of major currencies last night (Feb. 2) as markets saw the US economy is likely to recover sooner than Europe from the coronavirus pandemic due to more economic stimulus package and progress with vaccinations in the United States in contrast with the delay of vaccine distribution and economic slowdown in Europe. 

 

The dollar index, which is used to measure a value of the US dollar against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.24% to 91.2011 last night. 

 

The dollar went up against the Japanese yen and Swiss franc, rose to JPY105.08 and CHF0.899, respectively. But weakening against canadian dollar, declined to CAD1.28.

 

The euro and the pound sterling plunged against the dollar to trade at $1.20 and $1.365, respectively.

 

Meanwhile the Thai baht has weakened against the dollar, depreciated to stand above THB30 to the dollar following the trend in regional markets.

 

As a consequence, there could be a continued outflow from Thai exchange market following a 1,232 million baht selloff from foreign investors. The selloff from foreign investors as of now totaled 14,989 million baht.