Thailand's business operators urged to trade more with local currencies

BANGKOK, March 4 (TNA) - The Thai National Shippers' Council (TNSC) has proposed that business operators in the country expand the use of local currencies in their external trade in order to ease negative impacts on their businesses from the unstable US dollar. TNSC Chairperson Ghanyapad Tantipipatpong voiced the proposal on Monday when she led a delegation of TNSC executives and members for a regular meeting with the Bank of Thailand (BOT), six months each, at the central bank head office in Bangkok to discuss the situation of the foreign exchange market. "TNSC has particularly urged member business operators to not only protect their businesses with their risk insurance policies, but also expand the use of local currencies in their external trade to ease the negative impacts on their businesses from the unstable US dollar", Ghanyapad told journalists. Ghanyapad said although the BOT has already allowed business operators in Thailand to use four local currencies in their external trade, including the Chinese yuan, the Japanese yen, the Malaysian ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah, TNSC encourages them to expand the use of local currencies of other member countries in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) for their external trade, as the country's goods shipments to other ASEAN member countries now account for almost 25 per cent of the Kingdom's total exports annually. The TNSC cited BOT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob as indicating major factors that had caused the recent appreciation of the Thai baht, including the surplus in Thailand's current account and the depreciation of the US dollar. The TNSC chairperson noted, however, that the Thai currency has lately depreciated by 0.50-0.60 baht a US dollar. According to the TNSC chief, the Thai baht has remained unstable this year due to impacts from the unstable US dollar and the unsettled trade war between the United States and China, which have also affected Thai exports over the past few months. The TNSC chief, thus, projected that Thai exports should grow by a slower pace in 2019, or should expand by about 5 per cent year-on-year. (TNA)