The large capital inflows spurred an investment and real estate bubble. Financial institutions were lending excessively and imprudently, leading to rapidly deteriorating asset quality.
The central bank made matters worse by trying to shore up ailing financial institutions.
The strengthening of the US dollar relative to other major currencies starting in 1995 and China’s rapid emergence into the world market also weakened Thailand’s competitiveness.
In 1996, exports declined by about 1.3% compared with over 20% growth in both 1994 and 1995.
The weakened fundamental led to pressures on the baht and market perception was that the baht needed to be devalued, and speculators attacked the baht in various waves.
What made matters worse was that the Bank of Thailand (BOT) tried to stubbornly defend the value of the baht. By the end of June 1997 almost all of the country’s reserves had been used to try to defend the value of the baht and official foreign reserves net of committed forward obligations declined to only about $US 2.8 billion.