Thai Baht At Three-Year Low, Pound At Two-Year High

Published: 23 Dec at 4 PM Tags: Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, UK, Canadian Dollar, USA, Canada, South Africa, Thailand,

With over one thousand anti-government protestors swarming around the Thai Prime Minister’s Bangkok home the Baht tumbled to a three year low against the US Dollar.

Fears that the social unrest will spark political upheaval and subsequent economic damage left the Baht in a weaker position against the majority of its most traded currency counterparts.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has spoken out against the opposition Democrat Party’s intention to boycott next year’s election and protestors have taken to the streets as a result. The demonstrators’ aim is to prevent the registration of election candidates.

As forex trader Kozo Hasegawa noted; ‘Investors aren’t buying the Thai Baht if this political situation continues.’

Hasegawa intimated that the Rand could eventually drop to 32.9 if the threat of political instability continues.

The Baht is currently trading against the US Dollar in the region of 32.6700

Although the US University of Michigan index came in below estimates the ‘Greenback’ retained gains against the Asian asset as North American trading continued.

In other currency news, the Pound approached a two-year high against the US Dollar as the impact of the Federal Reserve’s decision to taper stimulus wore off and last week’s impressive UK employment data lent Sterling underlying support.

The Pound is currently trading against the US Dollar in the region of 1.6337

Meanwhile, the Canadian Dollar was able to recover ground against its neighbouring currency counterpart as domestic growth data met expectations. The report confirmed that Canada’s economy expanded for a fourth month in October, growing 0.2 per cent month-on-month.

As the week progresses currency market fluctuations may be limited due to the Christmas holidays and a lack of influential economic data releases.
As of Monday, 23rd December 2013, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP USD exchange rate was 1.635, GBP CAD exchange rate was 1.7358, GBP ZAR exchange rate was 16.9055, and GBP THB exchange rate was 53.4222.

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