Defending or abandoning the exchange rate peg was a difficult policy dilemma. In fact, before the float, real effective exchange rate had appreciated in line with the US dollar trend. However, whether and to what extent the real effective exchange rate was overvalued was a topic of controversy, since it would require a conclusion on the level of “equilibrium” real effective exchange rate. If one take the real effective exchange rate of the period where the current account was in equilibrium, say in 1990, that benchmark would indicate an overvaluation of 8 percent at most at the date of the float. However, recognizing the loss in competitiveness and structural changes since 1990, the simple application of such a benchmark would have been too simplistic. Nevertheless, it was felt that tampering with the exchange rate system (e.g. band widening) under the circumstance of intense speculative pressure ad ebbing domestic confidence would have resulted in a wholesale run on the baht and prompted an immediate currency crisis.