The baht opened at 31.16 to the US dollar on Friday, weakening from its close of 31.10 on Thursday.
The Thai currency is likely to move between 31.05 and 31.20 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
As on previous days, Poon said the baht would continue to fluctuate in line with the dollar, while the Thai currency would likely weaken.
He suggested that investors monitor foreign funds flows in the stock market, as the Thai market has risen compared to other stock markets at the end of this quarter.
The market strategist predicted that some institutions would adjust their investment portfolio by decreasing the proportion of stocks and increasing the share of bonds.
Poon said that investors would sell more and more stocks in the Thai market.
He believed the Bank of Thailand would sell dollars to reduce its foreign exchange reserves and in turn delay the weakening of the baht.
“Thailand would probably decide to reduce its reserves in order to delay the baht weakening, and at the same time avoid being accused of being a currency manipulator by the US,” he added.
The Ministry of Public Health is investigating the case of a 60-year-old patient who suffered from abdominal aneurysm and died after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine due to rupture of the aneurysm, Dr Sophon Mekthon, chairman of the government’s subcommittee on Covid-19 vaccine management, said.
Aneurysm is an excessive swelling of the wall of an artery.
This is the first death reported in Thailand since vaccination began on February 28.
“Our guess is that the death might not be related to the vaccine, as an abdominal aneurysm can burst at any time and about 20 per cent of patients display no symptoms prior to the rupture,” he said.
Sophon added that so far there had been only two reports of severe side-effects from vaccination in Thailand. In the other case the patient has developed urticaria after getting the vaccine. Urticaria, also known as hives, is a skin rash caused by a reaction to food, medicine or other irritants.
“We are looking into both cases in detail to determine if the symptoms are vaccine-related,” he said.
“Other minor side-effects that are common are fever, muscle pain and redness at the injection areas, which usually go away in 1-2 days,” he said.
Staff from the Marine and Coastal Resources Office on Thursday rescued a bottlenose dolphin floating in Khao Saming irrigation canal in Trat province.
Officials tried to corner the dolphin by casting a fishing net and successfully caught it after around one hour. The dolphin was then brought to Trat Navy Supply Base in Laem Ngob district for a health examination by veterinarians.
Preliminary inspection revealed that the dolphin had a cut wound at its mount and was generally exhausted from trying to elude the officials. The dolphin is about 180-200 centimetres long and weighs 120-150 kilograms, while the age and sex are still unknown.
Officials speculated that it might have swam into the canal to hunt for smaller fish and then got injured.
Veterinarians said the dolphin would be kept at the naval base until it was healthy enough to be released back into the sea.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has decided to ease lockdown measures at Chatuchak Market.
Merchants will be allowed to open their shops on weekdays, except Monday, Wanlaya Wattanarat, BMA’s deputy permanent secretary, said.
The market had earlier been ordered shut on weekdays and be open only on weekends to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“To help increase revenue for the merchants, the market will open until 8pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while on Friday, Saturday and Sunday merchants are allowed to remain open until 10pm,” she said.
“Chatuchak will close every Monday for cleaning.”
The BMA also has ordered the market administrator to expand the walkways within the market by removing obstacles and stalls that encroach on walkways to reduce crowdedness in the areas, as well as install lighting to facilitate people’s night-time shopping.
“We expect the market will be ready to open six days a week by around mid-April,” she added.
“After the reopening on weekdays, we are planning to organise promotional activities around the clock tower to attract shoppers, such as cactus or gifts festival.”
The BMA also urged over 10,000 merchants in 31 zones of the market to send one representatives from each zone to participate in meetings with the BMA and market administrator to address any problems they might have and find solutions together.
Wanlaya added that merchants and shoppers at Chatuchak still need to follow Covid-19 preventive measures, including wearing face mask, maintaining social distancing and washing hands regularly.
A hot to very hot day with haze has been forecast for Friday in the lower North and upper Central regions due to the heat low covering upper Thailand.
Meanwhile, the southerly and southeasterly winds would bring humidity from the Gulf and the South China Sea to the lower North, the lower Northeast, the Central region including Bangkok and its vicinity and the East, resulting in isolated thundershowers in the areas, the Thailand Meteorological Department forecast on Friday.
The easterly winds prevailing over the Gulf and the South is weakening, bringing less rains to the lower South.
The weather forecast for the next 24 hours:
North: Hot to very hot day with haze and thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 21-27 degrees Celsius, highs of 36-41°C.
Northeast: Hot day with haze and thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 22-25°C, highs of 35-37°C.
Central: Hot to very hot day with haze and thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 24-26°C, highs of 36-40°C.
East: Hot day with haze and thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 24-25°C, highs of 34-38°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres offshore.
South (east coast): Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 30 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 22-25°C, highs of 33-35°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres during thundershowers.
South (west coast): Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 30 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 22-26°C, highs of 35-37°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres offshore.
Bangkok and surrounding areas: Hot day with haze; temperature lows of 24-26°C, highs of 34-38°C.
The National Health Security Office (NHSO) is collaborating with multiple stakeholders to achieve single-payer healthcare reform.
On March 1, the NHSO board chaired by Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul approved the implementation of the “national health security reform” roadmap, aiming to create unity and fairness in Thai health systems as well as ensure sustainable health financing.
The Cabinet acknowledged the roadmap during its meeting in December last year. It sets nine goals to be achieved in the coming years:
Unify the healthcare reimbursement system, starting from healthcare claims for health promotion and disease prevention services, primary care, community/home care, and inpatient care. Currently, there are three healthcare schemes – the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS), Social Security Scheme, and Civil Servant Medical Benefits Scheme – run separately by various government agencies.
Unify government healthcare schemes under the same management, reimbursement system and benefits package, to increase Thailand’s capacity to handle future health crises and emerging diseases. The management will include a shared beneficiary registration system, data exchange between healthcare schemes, and collaborative support for health facilities to improve the quality and standard of health services.
Prioritise health promotion and disease prevention programmes. The government shall set the budget for the programme separately from the budgets for medical treatment. The health promotion and disease prevention programmes are currently funded by the government’s health budget, prioritising medical treatment rather than health promotion and disease prevention activities despite their considerable benefits for national health security.
Expand the long-term care programme to beneficiaries of all healthcare schemes while increasing its funding to address Thailand’s ageing society. The programme is currently available only for UCS beneficiaries.
Health insurance must be compulsory for all migrant workers in Thailand. They shall have different health insurance options.
Set targets and indicators to achieve value-based healthcare. Pilot these in selected health facilities or health region areas.
Anutin Charnvirakul
Achieve Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) with a single-payer system, and define the reimbursement rates, terms, and criteria acceptable for state and private hospitals.
Establish a health database that includes data on people and health services in all healthcare schemes. The data, which shall be shared with relevant parties based on mutual benefits, shall cover vulnerable populations, including elderly and dependent patients.
Use data from the reimbursement system to design effective health systems for all stakeholders.
Dr Jadej Thammatacharee, NHSO deputy secretary-general, said the NHSO has set up a subcommittee on unifying the government’s health insurance system to monitor and push the implementation of the reform roadmap. From January 2021 to December 2022, goals one, five, six, and eight mentioned above will be prioritised.
Dr Akejit Changloa, the subcommittee’s chairman, emphasised that health promotion and disease prevention programmes would reduce the burden caused by disease.
“To implement the programme effectively, we need to increase people’s health literacy. We also need to empower vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities and dependent people, to help them move forward with the society,” he said.
Thailand’s international trade has been improving in line with the gradual recovery of the global economy, with Thai exports bringing in more than US$20 billion as of February.
Though overall exports have dropped by 2.59 per cent year-on-year, export in the real sector excluding gold, oil and weaponry, has continued to soar, reflected by a 2.87 per cent growth.
Major industrial products, such as equipment and parts for automobiles and computers, integrated circuits, steel and steel products, chemicals and plastic resin, showed robust recovery.
The recovery of Thailand’s export sector coincides with the upward revision of the global economic outlook by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) to 5.6 per cent growth this year from an earlier estimate of 4.2 per cent.
Moreover, the Global Manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers index) has stood above 50 (53.9) for eight months running as of February.
Products with strong expansion in February are classified into three groups:
• Agriculture and food products like rubber, vegetables and fruits, cassava products, pet food and food seasoning.
• Work-at-home products and home appliances like furniture and parts, microwave ovens, heating appliances, refrigerators and freezers, washing machines and parts, air conditioners and parts, and cellphones and parts.
• Medical goods such as rubber gloves, medical equipment and parts.
Agricultural and agro-industrial product exports rose by 7 per cent year on year. Products that expanded favourably include cassava products (+46.6 per cent); fresh, frozen, canned, and processed vegetables and fruits (+42.9 per cent); rubber (+22.9 per cent); pet food (+20.7 per cent) and food seasoning (+3.4 per cent).
On the contrary, some exports dropped such as sugar (-35.5 per cent); frozen, canned and processed seafood (-10.9 per cent); fresh, frozen and processed chicken (-7.6 per cent) and rice (-4.9 per cent).
Meanwhile, the export of industrial products dropped by 4 per cent year on year, though the export of some things rose such as furniture and parts (+20.2 per cent); oil-related products (+14.8 per cent); computer, equipment and parts (+12.7 per cent); electrical appliances (+12.3 per cent); electronic integrated circuits (+9.5 per cent); automobile, equipment and parts (+3.6 per cent); and rubber products (+24.8 per cent).
Exports of some products dropped such as gold (-93.0 per cent); hard disk drive (-7.2 per cent); textiles (-12.5 per cent); semiconductors, transistors and diodes (-6.6 per cent). For the first two months of 2021, Thai industrial product exports declined by 1.7 per cent year on year.
Boosted by Swedish expertise and investment, Thailand has launched a mission to become the hub of Asia Pacific’s space industry.
On Wednesday, Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) hosted executives from the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and Sweden’s ambassador for talks on expanding cooperation in space technology development.
SSC established a satellite ground station at the GISTDA-run Space Krenovation Park in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) three years ago, becoming the largest foreign investor in Thailand’s space programme.
The Space Krenovation Park is part of Digital Park Thailand (EECd), a science and technology investment promotion area for local and foreign businesses.
Wednesday’s talks to step up cooperation demonstrated the confidence of the Swedish government and the SSC in Thai space policy, said GISTDA. They also showed the EEC’s potential to become a key base for expansion of high-tech businesses in the aerospace industry and services, creating a hub for the space industry in the region, it added.
This would help push Thailand into a global value chain in the field of space, said the agency.
The SSC provides space and satellite operations, rocket and balloon systems, launch services, aerospace engineering services and airborne maritime surveillance systems.
It created Smart-1, the first small satellite to use an electric propulsion system to reach lunar orbit.
The SSC is also using satellite data to boost sustainability around the globe. The company’s GlobalTrust subsidiary is using satellite data to help companies and organisations around the world check and verify their efforts towards sustainability and environmental/social responsibility.
Thailand’s drug regulator has approved use of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced on Thursday.
Writing on Facebook, Anutin said Food and Drug Administration secretary-general Paisan Dankhum had given the green light for emergency use in Thailand of J&J’s single-jab shot.
The J&J shot is the third vaccine approved by Thailand after the Sinovac and AstraZeneca jabs.
However, Anutin offered no details about how many doses Thailand would order from J&J. The country has so far ordered 2 million shots from Sinovac and 61 million from AstraZeneca.
Anutin also invited more companies to register their vaccines with the Thai FDA, promising the government would not run a monopoly on vaccines. Private medical companies in Thailand have criticised the government for not allowing them to import their own vaccines yet.
The chief of Mukdahan’s Natural Resources and Environment Office was caught on Thursday demanding a bribe of Bt2 million for the return of a smuggled Siam rosewood cache, say police.
Suradech Akkarach was arrested along with his alleged accomplice, Kochaphan Saengwirun, while meeting with a Lao lumber trader at a coffee shop close to the Mukdahan Provincial Natural Resources and Environment Office.
The police also seized Bt2 million in cash and four smartphones as evidence.
The cache of Siam rosewood (payung wood) was smuggled into the northern border province from Laos in 2006, said investigators.
Pol Colonel Natthanawit Sitthapirom, superintendent at the anti-corruption division, said police had staked out the coffee shop after being tipped off by the Lao lumber trader.
“Suradech was charged with demanding a bribe and abandoning his duty, while Kochaphan was charged with aiding bribery,” Natthanawit said.
Cheewapap Cheewatham, deputy director-general at the Royal Forest Department, added that Suradech may be discharged from government service.
