THE US Treasury Department added Thailand to its “monitoring list” of currency manipulating countries today (Dec. 17) on suspicions that the country took various steps to weaken its currency against the US dollar, South China Morning Post and Sanook.com reported.
The US Treasury said its “monitoring list” of countries that meet some of the criteria has hit 10, with the additions of India, Taiwan and Thailand. Others on the list include China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia.
Meanwhile Thai Finance Minister Akom Termpittayapaisit said today after the US made this announcement that Thailand is not worried because the US is still monitoring the country and has not yet taken any steps with money management being the direct responsibility of the Bank of Thailand.
The US Treasury has labelled Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators in what may be one of the last broadsides to international trading partners by the departing administration of President Donald Trump.
The US Treasury said that in the year through June 2020 Switzerland and Vietnam had intervened heavily in currency markets to prevent effective balance of payments adjustments.
In response to the allegation by the US Treasury, the Swiss National Bank said it does not manipulate its currency and its monetary policy approach would be unchanged, adding that it “remains willing to intervene more strongly in the foreign exchange market”.
Vietnam’s trade ministry declined to comment on the report and referred questions to the foreign ministry.
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Top: Currency on calculator. Photo: Mike Cohen (CC BY 2.0), source: creditscoregeek.com
