Thailand's Baht Hits 9-Year High; Exporters Boost Won

South Korea's won snapped a two-day decline on speculation exporters are taking advantage of the currency's drop to a one-week low to repatriate profits.



The won has climbed 9.5 percent this year as the economy expanded, spurred by exports that surged to a record in November. The currency's gains have eroded the value of overseas sales that account for about 40 percent of the nation's economy.

"There's a lot of export orders so that's helping the won," said Koby Koo, a currency trader at Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul. "We're also breaking through some good levels, helping momentum," and that means the won can go higher.

The won rose 0.4 percent to 922.70 against the US dollar.

Thailand's baht rose to the highest since the 1997 financial crisis on speculation accelerating economic growth will make the central bank less concerned about its advance.

The Bank of Thailand is "concerned about volatility, but they're not going to stop the trend of a rising baht," said Philip Wee, senior currency economist at DBS Group Holdings in Singapore. "With the broad trend of a declining [US] dollar, the baht will be going higher."

The baht climbed as much as 1 percent to 35.23 per [US] dollar, the highest since October 7, 1997.

Asian currencies also gained as the US dollar fell overnight in New York, after former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the US currency will probably keep dropping until the nation's current-account deficit shrinks.

The deficit was US$218.4 billion (HK$1.7 trillion) in the second quarter, the second-biggest on record.

By contrast many Asian nations run current account surpluses, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

The Philippine peso was stronger as export growth accelerated in October to 15.5 percent from a year earlier, according to a National Statistics Office report Tuesday.

The currency was 0.2 percent higher at 49.485 per US dollar.

Elsewhere, the Indonesian rupiah rose 0.2 percent to 9,072 per US dollar, the Singapore dollar climbed 0.2 percent to S$1.5404 and the Malaysian ringgit strengthened 0.3 percent to 3.5465.

The ringgit is undervalued and has a "modest scope" to strengthen, as mergers and acquisitions attract overseas funds, said Sim Moh Siong, an economist at Citigroup in Kuala Lumpur.>