Why is'nt the pound getting stronger against the baht?

Why is'nt the pound getting stronger against the baht? I mean its been low for so long now. I remember when it had its 'crash' but i would of thought it would of reached maybe 57 by now what's keeping it down?

I heard the THB is linked to the dollar. The pound has been creeping up against the euro but not the THB what going on???

Ive got a feeling it wont go back to 73 like it was in 2005 and im sure it was much higher before that.

yes, baht rate usually pegs the dollar movements. The pound has recovered a bit against euro and pound since the low last year; Euro was stronger for longer so that is why we have improved more recently.

If your worried about the rate now, hold on to your hat. it reached a low of 48 to the pound last year, and i think 73 would have been the record high in the last 10 years? before the asian recession in the 90's the pound was a lot lower (do not have information that old). My expectation is you will not see over 60 baht to the pound again unless big political problems impact on economy ( not just protests). i hope it will stay above 50, but more likely below 50 than above 60 in my opinion. These predictions for next 5 years. Longer than that - who knows?

Reasons - Thailand has resources, pretty good industry and the asian area economy (i.e. trade between asian nations rather than rest of world) is probably going to boom. What have we got? A discredited financial system? Anything else?

true true very true. I agree i think if there is going to be a high, its going to be no higher then 60.

Thailand has resources etc but remember we are talking about the GBP. Today it was announced the UK is offcially out of reccesion and is on the up which im sure will boost the pound over the coming months. I think the main prblem is thailand is growing evry day. more and more tourist are flooding in buildiong the economy. when thailand gets most of its citizens to pay tax...their economy is going to boom big time.

and then it will be vietnams turn to take the batton then burma etc etc

Out of recession yes, but barely and expected to have been better. both FTSE and pound have fallen

This was moved to a more approriate heading as it has little to do with 'General Topics on Udonthani'

its a piss poor exchange rate now which encourages tourists to look elsewhere for better value . if you factor in the 500-600 pound airfare ,eastern europe offers better value ,for lovers of local pussy . at 70 plus its a good value destination ,but at todays rates theres better places to go . BTW the record was 100+ bahts to the pound in 97 .
blame the hedge funds and banks investing in Dubais boom instead of a UK boom . mind you if you buy from 7-11 and eat street food its not bad . but if you hang around in bars buying ladydrinks you can get hru a lot of cash quickly

I think alot of ferangs come out to thailand with thousands and thousands of pounds and like my uncle it drifts away faster then you think.

Every ferang starts with buying a house because they usually have a wife then they need a car usually a brand new one because theyve got money in the bank which totalls about 30 thousand pounds. Then because the ferang usually thinks what if i run out of money??? so they buy a piece of land or even piece'S of land which costs more money then they realise they gotta give their wife about 200 pounds a month by which time a gapping big hole is in their finances.

THEN they get bored so they go out every day which incures buying people and inevitably girls drinks which slowly....but surely grinds down the bank account and 6/7 years down the line and by jingo theyve run out of money.

sorry I had to say that. the above does not represent EVERY ferang just quite a few.

Philip101 wrote:I think alot of ferangs come out to thailand with thousands and thousands of pounds and like my uncle it drifts away faster then you think.

Every ferang starts with buying a house because they usually have a wife then they need a car usually a brand new one because theyve got money in the bank which totalls about 30 thousand pounds. Then because the ferang usually thinks what if i run out of money??? so they buy a piece of land or even piece'S of land which costs more money then they realise they gotta give their wife about 200 pounds a month by which time a gapping big hole is in their finances.

THEN they get bored so they go out every day which incures buying people and inevitably girls drinks which slowly....but surely grinds down the bank account and 6/7 years down the line and by jingo theyve run out of money.

sorry I had to say that. the above does not represent EVERY ferang just quite a few.

Does it represent you?

me I get 23 baht to my NZ dollar, so have to be ruddy rich if I want the new house, flash car and pay for the wife and girly drinks, hence I have none of that, so it saves me a fortune..hehehe..

we in NZ have come out of the recession so they say and things are nearly back to the 25baht per dollar which is almost top dollar for me over the last few years, however I notice that what goes down on the USA stock exchange affects my dollar. doesnt matter if things are going good in NZ, if USA and Obama have a hiccup we feel the ripple effect and our dollar goes down, so I would hazard a guess that it is the same for thailand..yet now I think of it, we are way down on the Aussie dollar 78c, and the american 71c, but not so far down on the Thai baht of and equal fall..so what does that mean hmmmmm..have NZ and Thailand weathered the recession storm better than some other countries..wouldnt know...or did the USA fork out to much to the banks, and health care thingy, and did UK do something of a bail out too..not sure..it seems the countries that swooped in fast at the beginning of the money crisis and took drastic evasive action, are the ones taking longer to pull out of the recession...I dont think things will be the same as of old for a good five years..they are talking about a fall again later this year, so she might be a bumpy ride for awhile , so tighten your belts lads, no more girly drinks

Philip101 wrote:their economy is going to boom big time.

I would humbly suggest Phillip that you don't know much about Thailand.
When I initially arrived here in 94 I had similar expectations from the Thai economy, at that time business was great, there were more trucks transporting concrete than there were Tuk tuks, it seemed every Bangkok Thai had a neck full of gold a BMW and a new condo, yes the old Tiger economy was going great guns.
Then I stood back and looked around, my clients were all buying equipment that they really couldn't need, financed with in cheap USD.

Every big wheel about town had to have a condo project underway, but sales had dried up despite the bill board out front shouting out 115% already sold.
Everybody had caught the disease and all were in denial, the economy was highly vulnerable and potentially in tatters, but no one wanted to a talk about it.
Except that bastard foreigner, the devil incarnate, G Soros, he had spotted the glaring weakness and an opportunity from afar, it didn't take up long to load up on forward currency options and stand back rubbing his hands as the mayhem ensued.
The devil had gatecrashed the party at the house of cards, What has the crises of 97 taught the Thai about financial excess? nothing, Its in the process of happening again. Big spending, big borrowing, e.g buying such useful toys as a whole shopfull of F16's.

Some mixed bags of posts above on the subject but can see the pound staying in early 50's for sometime unless Thailand devalues or the UK changes on its postion to keep a weak currency to help exports.Give the UK a chance for the rest of this year to get away from the recession,I will write off the rest of this year in waiting for a significant improvement in the exchange rate.Have not factored in yet though Thai politics,the upcoming ruling on Taksin etc.

Anything below 50 on a longterm trend would just eat into my savings and food/living costs here when exchange rate is used,means Thailand is defintely losing its value for money tag.
Just have to eat more beatles,bugs and cheap beer.

So for the desperate farang to live here at all costs, rent or get your g/f/TW to take out a mortgage,put car on finance,forget to buy land as cannot own it,eat and drink at your rented house instead of needing a farang fix by needing to go to bar/restaurant etc

This article mentions the GBP being devalued.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010 ... -bob-gross

Apologies for being the harbinger of doom and gloom.

I am very suspicious when a fund manager tells me to buy or sell. it usually means it is good for HIM if you do it. i suspect an attempt to talk down pound so he can buy some on the cheap. The pound has already been devalued by 2008 standards (about 20%) and every time some 'bad' news comes out it falls 1-2% but then slowly drifts back up. That suggests panick selling followed by judicious investment. If i had taken the advice of the fund manager reps i have met i would be bankrupt by now. Whenever any 'financial' product gets pushed (particularly after a good period) it usually means the professionals want to sell out to the suckers. e.g. 2 years ago big push to sell buy to let properties. yes, the GBP is weak now, we should have joined the euro about 4 years ago. I was looking at how best to move into euros abot 2 years ago, but did not because interest rates were crap; my mistake.

izzix wrote:its a piss poor exchange rate now which encourages tourists to look elsewhere for better value . if you factor in the 500-600 pound airfare ,eastern europe offers better value ,for lovers of local pussy . at 70 plus its a good value destination ,but at todays rates theres better places to go . BTW the record was 100+ bahts to the pound in 97 .
blame the hedge funds and banks investing in Dubais boom instead of a UK boom . mind you if you buy from 7-11 and eat street food its not bad . but if you hang around in bars buying ladydrinks you can get hru a lot of cash quickly

Izzie, I Remember in 97 it went to 102 Baht to the pound ............Correct ???

Astana wrote:

Philip101 wrote:I think alot of ferangs come out to thailand with thousands and thousands of pounds and like my uncle it drifts away faster then you think.

Every ferang starts with buying a house because they usually have a wife then they need a car usually a brand new one because theyve got money in the bank which totalls about 30 thousand pounds. Then because the ferang usually thinks what if i run out of money??? so they buy a piece of land or even piece'S of land which costs more money then they realise they gotta give their wife about 200 pounds a month by which time a gapping big hole is in their finances.

THEN they get bored so they go out every day which incures buying people and inevitably girls drinks which slowly....but surely grinds down the bank account and 6/7 years down the line and by jingo theyve run out of money.

sorry I had to say that. the above does not represent EVERY ferang just quite a few.

Does it represent you?

I dont know but It does me!.....One of the many!