Thailand sets baht target, giving exporters a boost

Bangkok: Thailand's Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong gave a target for where the baht should trade and urged the central bank to cut the benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to help exporters, pushing the currency to a one-month low.

Thai-based companies faced difficulties shipping goods when the baht approached a level of 30 per dollar, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday in Hong Kong. Exports fell more than expected in January as factories struggled to resume production after the worst flooding in almost 70 years and as global demand weakened.

"Those companies have been adjusting themselves and improved their efficiency in order to barely survive," Kittiratt said at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference. "So the range of 32 to 34 would be very good."