Thailand’s central bank kept its policy interest rate unchanged for a third straight meeting as economic growth quickened, resisting the government’s calls for monetary easing to cool the baht’s gains.
The Bank of Thailand held its one-day bond repurchase rate at 2.75 percent, with the monetary policy committee voting six to one to hold, it said in Bangkok yesterday. Seventeen of 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted the decision, while three called for a quarter of a percentage point cut.
Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul earlier this month said he was under no pressure to lower borrowing costs even after Thai Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong renewed calls for further cuts to discourage inflows that boosted the baht to a 17-month high last month.
A report this week showed the economy grew 18.9 percent last quarter from a year earlier, faster than estimated, as the nation’s recovery from the floods of 2011 gathered pace.
“It’s not worth trading the short-term gain of a weaker baht for risks of financial stability from a rate cut,” Kampon Adireksombat, an economist at Tisco Securities Co, said before the decision. “The economy is strong and inflation risks may re-emerge later this year. There is no reason to ease monetary policy further.”
The monetary authority will monitor capital flows closely and take action if needed, it said in a statement yesterday.
One person voted to cut the key rate by 25 basis points, it said.
Thailand is an “attractive place for hot money” because regulations are not as tight as in China, Bank of Thailand Chairman Virabongsa Ramangkura said late on Monday.
“No matter what regulations or barriers you have,” money will flow toward higher yields, he said, adding that while he was concerned, he could not think of measures that need to be used to slow inflows.
The economy grew at its fastest pace in at least 19 years last quarter after a slump in the corresponding period in 2011, when the worst floods in almost 70 years disrupted output by manufacturers from Western Digital Corp to Honda Motor Co.
Expansion is forecast to be as much as 5.5 percent this year.
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
Enhanced tax credits that have helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of US Affordable Care Act enrollees expired on Jan.1, cementing higher health costs for millions of Americans at the start of the new year. Democrats forced a 43-day US government shutdown over the issue. Moderate Republicans called for a solution to save their political aspirations this year. US President Donald Trump floated a way out, only to back off after conservative backlash. In the end, no one’s efforts were enough to save the subsidies before their expiration date. A US House of Representatives vote
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”
RSS