Thai central bank relaxes foreign currency regulations

  The Bank of Thailand has extended the allowable period of time for each individual to successively hold US currency from 120 days maximum to 360 days in order to cool down the baht appreciation and the daily fluctuations in the money and stock markets caused by hectic inflows and outflows of foreign currencies.

Suchada Kirakul, BoT assistant governor, said on Tuesday the move was made to keep the baht from rising too high and to contain the heavy fluctuations of foreign currencies in the local money and capital markets.

The extension for the US dollar holding was effective on Monday.

The central bank’s representatives are scheduled to brief financial firms and institutions about the latest currency-handling measure next Monday (Feb 11), she said.

She said the central bank anticipated the baht would not rise too high against the US dollar if investors and business firms were allowed to hold dollars long enough to make optimum use of the otherwise volatile currencies.

The baht, which recently hit a record high against the US dollar in a decade, is expected to gradually drop against the US dollar.

Simultaneously, exporters are expected to benefit considerably from a more stable currency under the measure, she said.

 Besides, listed securities firms will be allowed to shift more venture capital onto various projects in which they might co-invest with their parent companies overseas.

Because of this, the listed securities firms are allowed to put down a maximum of $100 million in their joint investment projects in a year.

In addition, the listed firms are allowed to borrow a maximum of US$100 million from their parent firms overseas in a year.

That represents a sharp increase from an earlier limit of $50 million. Individuals are also allowed to buy $5 million maximum in property overseas in a year

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