Bank of Thailand
Central Banks Move Further Into the Spotlight
April 29, 2026
The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to announce an unchanged federal funds target range of 3.50-3.75% at 14:00 EDT today. This is the last scheduled meeting of the Jay Powell chairmanship, although his Trump-nominated successor Kevin Warsh has not yet been confirmed by the senate. The last interest rate change was made in December. […] More
Thailand Interest Rate Cut
February 25, 2026
The benchmark interest rate at the Bank of Thailand was cut to 1.0% today from 1.25%. This cut had not been anticipated by analysts, since a 25-bp cut had been also done at the prior policy review in December. The new rate level is the lowest since October 2022. The decision to cut was not […] More
Dollar Unmoved by Record-Long State of the Union Address
February 25, 2026
Aside from a 0.5% overnight rise against the yen and a 0.5% drop versus the Australian dollar, the U.S. currency is narrowly mixed, and the DXY weighted dollar index is unchanged from Tuesday’s closing value. Major U.S. equity index rises of about 0.5% in pre-open futures trading show smaller increases than many other stock exchanges. […] More
Attention Shared by Central Bank Decisions & Year-end Data Deluge
December 17, 2025
The dollar rose overnight, led by gains of 0.5% against yen and sterling. The U.S. currency also appreciated 0.2% against the Australian currency and Mexican peso and 0.1% relative to the Swiss franc, euro, kiwi and won. Gold is 0.7% stronger, whereas Bitcoin has softened 0.4%. The price of gold bounced up 1.5%. Ten-year sovereign […] More
Dollar Revival Extended
October 8, 2025
Driven by sluggish growth and political uncertainties affecting other economies, the dollar climbed overnight by a further 0.6% against the Japanese yen and Korean won, 0.4% relative to the New Zealand dollar, 0.3% vis-a-vis the euro and 0.2% versus the Swiss franc, Turkish lira and British pound. The intra-day high in the weighted DXY dollar […] More
Bank of Thailand Cuts Interest Rate a Fourth Time
August 13, 2025
As widely expected and by unanimous vote, the key interest rate of the Bank of Thailand was cut today by 25 basis points to 1.5%. The reduction marked the fourth such cut since October from 2.5%, which had been the peak since September 2023. This latest policy easing was undertaken even though, as noted in […] More
Fed Rate Cut Speculation Gets a Fresh Impetus from Treasury Secretary Bessent
August 13, 2025
In the Trump Administration’s opinion, the federal funds target ought to be 150-175 basis points lower than the current 4.25-4.50% target range. Remarks from Treasury Secretary Bessent harp back to overly optimistic jobs figures announced initially for both May and June that were subsequently revised sharply lower. In his telling, there should have rate cuts […] More
Pausing While Watching Middle East and Awaiting Second Round of Powell Testimony
June 25, 2025
A fragile truce in the Iran-Israeli military conflict is mostly holding. Today is day two of a three-day NATO summit in The Hague. Agreement on a sharp increase in defense spending heads the agenda. In the wake of Middle Eastern developments over the past week, U.S. President Trump’s reception has been unexpectedly positive from what […] More
A Third Thai Central Bank Rate Cut but Not by a Unanimous Vote
April 30, 2025
By a 5-2 vote with dissents favoring no change, the Bank of Thailand‘s policy interest rate was reduced by 25 basis points from 2.0% to 1.75%. This marked the third such cut from a peak of 2.5% maintained for thirteen months until October 2024. CPI inflation in Thailand of 0.8% in March was below its […] More
Better Tone in World Equity Markets
February 26, 2025
Equity markets in the Pacific Rim rallied 3.3% in Hong Kong, 1.2% in New Zealand and 1.0% in China. Stock markets in the euro area’s four biggest economies so far today are showing net gains of at least 1.0%, while U.S. stock futures and the British FTSE have risen around 0.5%. Some of the relief […] More
