In the view of the analysts at ING Bank, the Bank of Thailand will use firmer growth as an argument for leaving policy on hold in the rest of 2019 and throughout 2020″.
Key Quotes:
“Thailand’s economy expanded 2.4% year-on-year in 3Q19, a slightly better rate than 2.3% in 2Q. It was still short of the 2.7% median expectation in the Bloomberg survey. 0.1% quarter-on-quarter (seasonally adjusted) growth moderated from 0.4% in the previous quarter, which was the slowest pace in the last four quarters.
We remain sceptical about further BoT easing from Asia’s arguably most hawkish central bank. The latest cut has pushed the policy rate to its lowest level ever, 1.25%.
We anticipate that there will be stiff resistance from policymakers to nudge it further, and these latest GDP data may be put forward as one reason for them to leave rates unchanged.”
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