Money, Finance, Insurance and Balance of Payments Statistics
Money, finance, insurance and balance of payments statistics presented in this chapter have
been derived from the Treasury Department, the Government Savings Bank, Ministry of Finance,
the Bank of Thailand and the Co-operatives Promotion Department, Ministry of Agriculture and
Co-operatives.
In general, “money” consists of coins, banknotes which are legal tender and bank demand
deposits which are paid and transferred by cheque. The unit of Thai currency known as “Baht” is
divided into one hundred “Stangs”, which is of the decimal system.
The Bank of Thailand, which was set up under the Bank of Thailand Act B.E. 2485, is the
central bank of the country. In order to ensure the stability of the currency and to maintain a
currency reserve fund, the compositions of the currency reserve fund providing in section 30 of the
Currency Act B.E. 2501 are as follows:
1.
gold,
2.
United States dollars, pound sterling, or other foreign currencies prescribed by the
Ministerial Regulation in the form of deposits with central banks or commercial banks outside the
kingdom,
3.
foreign securities with interest and principal paid in the foreign currencies listed in 2,
4.
securities of the Thai government, the interest and principal of which are payable in the
foreign currencies listed in 2. or in Baht,
5.
treasury bills purchased or re-discounted by the Bank of Thailand, provided that the
total amount does not exceed ten percent of the total amount of banknotes issued,
6.
gold or U.S. dollars contributed to the International Monetary Fund.
The Bank of Thailand is required to maintain the composition of the currency reserve fund
at not less than 60 percent of the total amount of notes issued.
Thailand has been a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 1949, but did
not fix an initial par value for the Baht, because at that time the economic situation had not yet
stabilized. On October 20, 1963 the Royal Decree was promulgated establishing par value of the
Baht. It provided that the par value for one Baht should be 0.0427245 gramme of fine gold and
