Thai Baht Touches Two-Week Low on Export Outlook; Bonds Steady

Thailand’s baht touched a two-week low before data that economists predict will show exports dropped for a second month in July. Government bonds were steady.

Overseas sales, which account for about two-thirds of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier, compared with a revised decline of 4.2 percent the previous month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before a government report on Aug. 21 or Aug. 22. Thailand may say today that gross domestic product increased 3.1 percent in the second quarter, faster than the 0.3 percent expansion in the previous three months, a separate survey shows.

“Declining exports may hurt the economy later this year,” said Tohru Nishihama, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc. in Tokyo. “Second-quarter growth should be quite solid due to the recovery process from last year’s floods. The uncertain export outlook weighs on the baht.”

The baht was unchanged at 31.52 per dollar as of 8:33 a.m. in Bangkok after touching 31.62 earlier, the weakest level since Aug. 3, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. One-month implied volatility, a measure of exchange-rate swings used to price options, was little changed at 4.51 percent.

The yield on the 3.25 percent bonds due June 2017 was 3.18 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yumi Teso in Bangkok at yteso1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net.