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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thai Baht and the relationship between retirees in Thailand and usage of the Thai Baht. Over the years I have met folks that retire out here in Southeast Asia, I met not a few who have retired in Cambodia, a few that have retired in Vietnam and in both of those countries, Vietnam not so much officially, in Cambodia it is just de facto at least at the time I was there, the currency was the Dollar. The dollar was in wide use in Vietnamese and retiring in either of those places, although Retirement in Vietnam is not so straightforward or at least it wasn't in the past because they don't really have a Retirement Visa, Cambodia a little bit different. But again, one thing I would talk to retirees especially when the Thai Baht got very strong, like 10 years ago, going back even a little further than that, about 11 years ago, the Thai Baht was really strong and folks who were in Cambodia, a lot of people were kind of fleeing over there for their weekend excursions, retirees especially because it was dollar based and a lot of American retirees were finding it very convenient to be spending money in dollars in Cambodia rather than having to exchange into a strong Baht to be here in Thailand. 

So again, exchange rates are a major concern for retirees out in this area of the world and I was thinking about this when I read a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Baht on a tightrope. Quoting directly: "Industry leaders have urged the Government to carefully manage the Baht to keep its value at a rate that will benefit both importers and exporters." Yeah, there's this kind of sweet spot where they really, really want the exchange rate to be especially vis-a-vis the Dollar. Quoting further: "The Baht was valued at 34.62 per US Dollar as of May 9, representing a depreciation of 3.4% since the beginning of the year, its lowest value in five years. The dip is attributed to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that continues to push up the prices of commodities and the inflation rate, the US Federal Reserve's recent interest rate hike and China's worsening pandemic and its accompanying challenges for supply chains and shipping, Poon Panichpibool, a market strategist at Krungthai Bank, said earlier." Yeah, one thing I would note that just doesn't ever seem to get mentioned is 2 years of total lockdown where the economy was just decimated, especially the tourism sector which brought in a substantial amount of foreign reserve to Thailand, that was just non-existent for two years and it seems like everybody just wants to forget about that and talk about China, the Federal Reserve in the US and Russia and Ukraine. I get it. Politicians don't really like to bring those kinds of things up but it just is what it is. And, if we are not going to talk about it fully, if we are not going to really talk about it, then there is no point in talking at all because we are just going to talk around just unpleasant things that have happened that are just factually that have occurred, what are we doing, there is no point because we are not really analyzing.

Leaving that aside, I urge those who are watching this video, go check that article out, Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, Baht on a tightrope, is the title. For now a weakening Baht I would say is probably pretty good for those foreign retirees that are bringing in fund remittances from their home countries in their home currencies and a weakened Baht is giving them more purchasing power here on the ground. Hopefully this phenomenon may actually attract more retirees to Thailand because I don't think we are going to see this abate anytime soon. 

Now I think that the Bank of Thailand, and this is pure speculation, I have no insight into this, this is just my experience being here for 15 years and having a basic understanding of currency policies, I suspect the Bank of Thailand is going to try to keep that exchange rate in a certain band. I think their bullseye for them is somewhere at the 33 mark, probably the high end of 33 before it hits 34 but right in that 33 mark is just kind of right where they want it, the sort of "Goldilocks" area where "not too hot, not too cold, just right!" Now can they get there? I don't know. I am kind of skeptical of the notion that anybody can really manipulate things to that level but you never know. That said, again with respect to retirees, for now at least I think that this is definitely probably a boon to them, a benefit to them. I think it probably will remain this way at least for the rest of this year I suspect. Now once we have high season presuming we see some tourism, things might change a little bit. If the export sector heats up things could change a little bit but for now I think it is definitely going to be kind of heaven sent for retirees here in the Kingdom of Thailand.