‘Currency Attack’Daily minimum wage

‘Currency Attack’
Daily minimum wages have risen as much as 89 percent after two increases in the past year. Most factories are located in an area where wages rose to 300 baht per day last April, an average increase of 38 percent, according to the industry ministry.
Investors may be trying to “play catch-up” after the baht lagged behind other currencies last year, Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul told reporters yesterday.
“From what we see, it’s not a currency attack,” he said. “The flows to attack the currency will try to dictate the market and try to build up the price. From what we see now, the selling and buying sides are not much different.”
Another legacy of the 1997 crisis is a lack of investment due to concerns over the country’s debt levels, which has led to persistent current-account surpluses, Kittiratt said. Thailand has had a current-account deficit only once since 1997, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.