Thai Government Seeks Rate Cut Big Enough to Halt Baht Gains

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration is pushing the central bank to cut its key interest rate to curb foreign inflows that drove the baht to its strongest level in 16 years last month.

Appreciation of the baht, the best performer this year among the 11 most actively-traded Asian currencies tracked by Bloomberg, is hurting exports and may slow economic growth, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said yesterday in an interview. The Bank of Thailand has held the policy rate at 2.75 percent for the past four meetings.