Thai central bank, the Bank of Thailand, is set to have its policy meeting next week. According to a Scotiabank research report, the BoT is expected to maintain its key interest rate at 1.5 percent. Inflation in the nation is currently at 0.4 percent year-on-year and much below the bottom of the central bank’s inflation target of 2.5 percent, plus or minus 1.5 percent. Thus, the policy risk going forward is evidently more tilted toward easing than hiking.
That policy risk continues to be mainly driven by evens outside of the country, including the outlook of U.S. Fed and the effect on the currency. The Thai baht, since the beginning of 2017, has strengthened against the U.S. dollar by around 4 percent and has been trading around its most robust levels since mid-2015.
