The baht rose 0.5% against the US dollar to its 33-month high of 32.43 baht in early trading on Wednesday. For all the efforts of policy makers last year, the baht appreciated almost 10% against the dollar, while the rupee climbed 6.4%. Thailand is more of a contender than India to be added to the monitoring list, said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank Ltd in Singapore. An RBI spokesman did not respond to questions on its intervention policy. “Overall, we expect RBI intervention to be constrained by the US Treasury’s focus,” Craig Chan, the global head of emerging-market FX strategy at Nomura in Singapore, said in the note.

Source: Bangkok Post January 04, 2018 02:15 UTC