US Dollar / Thai Baht - USD/THB

The recent history of the Thai Baht (THB) fluctuations was marked by the explosion of the Thai “estate bubble” in July 1997, financial crash which extended to all Asia.

In few days, the speculators massively sold THB which depreciated immediately in consequence, the exchange value of the USD/THB cross suddenly duplicated (so the THB value was divided by 2), from USD/THB= 30 to USD/THB=60.

The Thai Central Bank decided to put into place drastic measures to avoid « short » positions (selling positions) on the Baht, in particular by strongly invoicing the “overnight” positions of the stakeholders (the positions obtained after the official close of the market) and by limiting the long “positions” (buying positions) in volume.

Since the beginning of 1998, the USD/THB cross had again exchange values near from USD/THB=40, then it increased so the Baht depreciated, but with measure and control: we observed the value USD/THB = 45,7666 in July 2001.

The baht appreciated again slowly under the control of the Thai Central Bank, until a lower level USD/THB = 28 reached at the beginning of 2008.

As the measures of the control of the trading positions were reinforced after the Coup d’Etat in Thailand in the Fall of 2006, it is difficult today to trade the USD/THB cross; so the baht doesn’t really float.

In November 2009, the cross had an exchange value USD/THB=33.38, so a level quite similar to the ones of the end of 2008.