Posted by The meeting of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Wednesday decided to raise the repurchase rate (RP) by 0.25%, from 1.50% to 1.75%, reports said.
He believed the BoT would raise the policy rate by 0.25 percentage points at each monthly meeting of the monetary policy panel this year.
The new policy rate takes effect immediately.
The panel said the policy rate is now on an upward trend, in line with economic recovery.
Earlier, Federation of Thai Industries chairman Payungsak Chartsuthipol said higher policy rate will affect production costs.
The industrial sector should get ready for a higher interest rate climate by managing their production costs as there is a possibility the Bank of Thailand will announce further increases to the policy rate before the year ends.
The FTI chief said the central bank should oversee the value of baht to prevent it from getting too strong or fluctuating too much.
The baht’s appreciation should be maintained at levels in line with the currencies of other Asian countries to prevent a negative impact on the country’s trade competitiveness, he said.
Government Housing Bank (GHB) president Khan Prachuabmoh said his bank will keep its loan rates unchanged until the end of the year.
“We will maintain loan rates because we do not want to place and added burden on our customers. Moreover, we still have sufficient liquidity for the expansion of our lending portfolio,” said Mr Khan.
The state-owned bank’s president said that GHB will consider raising loan rates only when the Bank of Thailand has increased its RP rate by 0.75 percentage points or more.
He believed the BoT would raise the policy rate by 0.25 percentage points at each monthly meeting of the monetary policy panel this year.
News item courtesy of www.bangkokpost.com
