Has the Thai government taken a position on the strength of the Thai Baht?

Question

According to CNBC in late July 2019

The Thai baht has soared against the U.S. dollar this year, significantly more than many other emerging market currencies.

[...]

“Policymakers and exporters in Thailand are once again voicing concern about the strength of the baht,” Gareth Leather, senior Asia economist at research firm Capital Economics, wrote in a note earlier this month. “While most (emerging market) currencies have appreciated against the US dollar in recent months, none have risen by as much as the baht.”

The article goes on to say why the increase in the currency's strength may be too fast, hurting the tourism industry and exports. It lacks, however, what position the Thai government has taken on this, except for a bit on interest rates:

The country’s central bank could give in to pressure and cut rates to curb the rising baht, economists said. Still, they were not optimistic about the effectiveness of such a move.

“The (Bank of Thailand) could consider a rate cut to help reduce the baht’s yield appeal, but it will be no panacea,” DBS analysts said in their note, adding that a cut of 25 basis points would just undo a hike by the central bank last December.

ING’s Sakpal similarly said that any cut would see limited results.

The rise seems to have continued since, against the euro as well.

So I am wondering, has the Thai government taken any position on this matter? Have they (the PM, ministers, officials, etc.) made any statements in support of or against the rising value of the Baht? Alternatively, any government action aimed at influencing the value of the currency may also answer the question, though I'm looking for something more recent than December of 2018.

Answer 1

This month, they announced some measures to curb that rise. Most notably they had capital controls in place, which coupled with a trade surplus was clearly a reason for the baht appreciation. On Oct 10

BoT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has expressed concerns with the much rapid rise of the Thai baht.

“The BoT will roll out additional measures to curb the rising Thai baht, which will be ready in one or two months,” said Veerathai, adding “the new package of measures would cover three key areas.”

In a report released by the BoT, the first measure involves liberalizing capital outflows by allowing individual investors and institutional investors to take more money out of the country to invest abroad.

Exporters will also be allowed to park their money abroad when they earn income overseas. The BoT will also liberalize the currency exchange business and cross-border payment services in order to reduce the cost of cross-border transactions for people and businesses.

Secondly, the BoT will look into the import and export of gold in order to ensure that the gold trade would not move the value of the baht sharply.

Thirdly, the BOT will look into the structure of current account surplus. The Thai baht hit a six-year high on Wednesday and on Thursday it moved at around 30.30 baht per U.S. dollar.