The typical surcharges are 3% for Visa or MasterCard and 5% for American Express. You should be aware that many shops in Thailand, while they may accept credits, will often charge you more for using one. While we're on the subject of credit cards. To find out more about this practice, see an article at written by Durant Imboden, one of the web's most experienced travel writers. and Canadian credit-card companies are now tacking an extra 2% to 5% fee on international transactions. If you travel with a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or other credit card, watch out when charging purchases overseas.

To find out what the Baht is worth in your local currency, try the Currency Converter. See our on line money gallery for pictures of Thai currency. They're all legal tender, so don't worry if you start comparing the change in your pocket and notice some differences.Īll bills and all coins have a picture of His Majesty the King, and are therefore supposed to be shown some respect. Actually, there are several versions of coins in circulation, and not a few variations in bills as well. There is also still a 10-Baht bill in circulation, which is brown in color, but these are quite rare. The one, two and five-Baht coins are silver, while the ten-Baht coin consists of a silver ring around a brass center.īills vary in size and color according to denomination: 20-Baht is green, 50-Baht is blue, 100-Baht is red, 500-Baht is purple and 1,000-Baht is white. The other coins come in one, two, five and ten-Baht pieces. They're practically useless, and as a tourist you're unlikely to encounter them unless you shop at a supermarket or department store. Travelers checks are not widely accepted outside of hotels, so change them for cash at a bank exchange, which you'll find in any and every tourist destination.Ĭoins come in six denominations: 25 and 50-Satang coins are very small and made of brass. Major credit cards are accepted by hotels and large shops, but 'hard cash' is the preferred tender almost everywhere. The Philippine peso is expected to be weighed down by the country’s trade deficit, while the Malaysian ringgit is losing its tailwind as the outlook for commodity prices worsens.The currency of Thailand is the 'Baht' - sometimes spelled 'Bath' but pronounced to rhyme with 'hot.' One Baht is divisible into 100 Satang. The Indonesian rupiah is set to struggle as the central bank has already signalled its hiking cycle may be nearing its end. The other main regional currencies are beset with negatives which mean they are unlikely to match the two likely frontrunners. But it could be a case of slope steepening to anchor medium-term inflationary expectations.” “The case for further MAS tightening is still plausible if inflationary pressures in Singapore continue. “The Singapore dollar should remain resilient on the back of macro fundamentals and China reopening optimism,” OCBC’s Wong said. Further tightening canot be ruled out as core inflation remained above 5% in November despite the tighter policy settings.

The currency has benefited from policy tightening by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which re-centred the midpoint of its exchange rate band higher three times in 2022 to fight inflation. The other potential winner in the region is the Singapore dollar, which was the only Asian currency to appreciate against the greenback last year. “Domestic growth will be supported by a sustained recovery in tourism.”Īfter hovering around 38 to the US dollar in September and October last year, the baht began to strengthen as the year drew to a close, and was trading on Tuesday around 34.35. “The baht is likely to lead gains among Asia ex Japan for 2023 on the China reopening theme, slower Fed hikes and a moderate-to-soft US dollar profile,” Wong said. The Thai currency should also benefit along with its Asian peers as the US Federal Reserve slows the pace of its own interest rate increases, pushing down the dollar, says Christopher Wong, a foreign-exchange strategist at OCBC Bank Singapore.

The Bank of Thailand has already said it expects to keep raising interest rates through the first half of 2023, and any upside surprise in the data may see markets price in a longer tightening cycle. The baht may get an early boost to start the year if December inflation numbers due on Thursday show the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is starting to rise again, as economists forecast. China is also Thailand’s biggest export market so the efforts by the world’s second-largest economy to bolster growth should help too. The baht is set to be powered by an influx in Chinese tourists after Beijing rescinded most of its Covid controls over the past month, paving the way for a recovery in outbound travel. The race to be Southeast Asia’s best-performing currency in 2023 looks like it could be between the Thai baht and Singapore dollar.

Thai currency rates