file photo
OPINION | by Michael Bridge
Gone were the heady days when one could arrive at Don Muang airport and get THB75 to the pound and feel like a millionaire.
In fact, in the late 1990s, one pound actually reached THB92 for a brief period. Oh happy days.
The pound’s recent lowest point was THB 36.6 in August 2019, and we know how miserable that felt.
Currently, the pound was worthTHB 44.6 on July 28th certainly going up since THB42.07 was recorded in June.
Those getting funds from the States have seen the dollar climb from THB32.11 on February 18th to THB36.67 on July 28th, 2022.
So many of us are at least getting more Baht for our bucks or quids at the moment.
Trying to understand why is a tricky business for sure.
One would have thought that with Thailand’s travel industry demise, rising inflation, and uncertainty within the government, that the baht would be even weaker.
Hedging ones bet
OK when things get tougher in the old day’s people would hedge their bets by buying gold, however that has not been the case this past six months.
Back on January 27, 2022, a gram of gold was going for $57.84 and on July 26th it was down to $55.23 a gram.
Even when Russia invaded Ukraine back in March gold only went up to $66.42 a gram for a short spell.
Meanwhile those clever investors who sold their bitcoins some time ago made a pretty penny or ten thousand, I am sure.
However how many have now been caught with expensive real estate investments based on a buoyant crypto market, only to wake up to a huge mortgage and little in crypto value to support it left.
Seems the Dollar is offering a safer route at the moment, as in uncertain periods such as we are experiencing today, people have tended to support the world’s largest economy.
If you are lucky to still have a bundle of pounds or a wad of dollars, should you hold onto them or go to a reliable currency exchange and buy Thai Baht?
Who knows?
With the world’s economy in trouble and the cost of living rising will that mean the promised high season in Thailand is unlikely to materialize.
If China which has its own issues with a slow economy and coping with the Pandemic affecting its output, then decides to slow down on importing Thai goods and it stops investing in High-speed railway projects here, that will certainly hurt the economy.
Meanwhile, they may have gotten rid of Boris but is the possible new Prime Minister, the current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, going to lift the UK economy with her planned tax cutting programmes?
OAP Biden seems to blunder from one crisis to another without really achieving much.
Trump is breathing down his neck as well and is waiting to return in triumph.
And do we really want a mogul who does not pay his taxes back in the headmaster’s seat again?
I suppose the future is so uncertain that it may be better to take up playing golf and then join the LIV Golf tour and get some serious cash.
Good luck.
(Source: – Asean Now)
