3. Given its foreign currency obligations, Thailand simply cannot participate
economically in the international community without sufficient foreign reserves. Therefore,
tackling the problem of almost complete depletion of foreign reserves had to be a main
priority of the IMF Program. The IMF put together a lending package of US$ 16.7 billion for
Thailand.3 However, the IMF package is meant only as a relatively short-term liquidity
support, with repayment for each drawing due in three years. Thus, Thailand had to enact a
stringent reform package to turn around the foreign reserve position. The package had to
generate sufficient net inflows of foreign exchanges to regain market confidence that
Thailand would remain in a position to meet its foreign currency obligations.