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
(1942)
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
(1958)
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.
