This guide covers the Thai baht series in the FXMacroData production catalogue: 16 series from the Bank of Thailand, the Ministry of Commerce's Trade Policy and Strategy Office, the national planning agency and the Thai Bond Market Association. It explains what each measures, when it is released in Bangkok time and UTC, and how USD/THB traders read it.
Quick answer
What is covered
16 THB series: the BOT policy rate, 2y, 3y, 5y and 10y government bond yields, headline and core CPI, producer prices, quarterly GDP growth, employment, unemployment and participation, the trade balance, current account, and M1 and M2.
Who publishes it
The Bank of Thailand (BOT), the Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) of the Ministry of Commerce, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) and the Thai Bond Market Association (ThaiBMA).
Why it matters
Thailand is a tourism- and export-driven economy with very low inflation. Policy easing, the current account and gold- and tourism-related flows explain most baht moves.
Takeaway: THB is driven as much by the external accounts as by the policy rate: the monthly current account and trade figures matter almost as much as each BOT decision.
Who Publishes Thai Data
- Bank of Thailand (BOT): the Monetary Policy Committee sets the one-day repurchase rate under a flexible inflation target of 1 to 3 per cent. The BOT also publishes the monthly economic and monetary conditions report, which carries the balance of payments, trade, money supply and the labour indicators used here.
- Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), Ministry of Commerce: the consumer price index, core inflation (excluding raw food and energy) and the producer price index.
- NESDC: quarterly national accounts, including real GDP growth.
- Thai Bond Market Association (ThaiBMA): daily government bond yield curve.
The baht has floated since July 1997, when Thailand abandoned its dollar peg at the start of the Asian financial crisis. Today the BOT runs a managed float: it does not target a level for USD/THB, but it intervenes to smooth sharp moves and has at times used measures to discourage speculative short-term inflows. That means the policy rate is not the only official lever in play, and fast baht moves can meet resistance even when the rate outlook has not changed.
FXMacroData records each release with its reference period (date) and the moment it was published (announcement_datetime), and serves it through the REST API, the dashboard and the MCP server. Releases are typically available within seconds of official publication (release speed).
THB Indicators Covered
Policy rate and bond yields
- BOT policy rate: the one-day repurchase rate, recorded at every MPC meeting, holds included. A cut narrows the baht's yield gap to the US dollar.
- 2-year, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year government bond yields: daily ThaiBMA data. The 2-year shows what the market expects from the BOT; foreign flows into Thai bonds are a major baht driver.
Inflation
- Headline CPI: TPSO's monthly consumer price inflation. Thailand has spent long periods near or below the bottom of the BOT's target band, which shapes the easing debate.
- Core CPI: excludes raw food and energy, the better guide to underlying price pressure.
- Producer price inflation: input costs, influenced by energy and commodity prices.
Growth
- Real GDP growth: NESDC's quarterly year-on-year growth rate. Thailand's growth has lagged regional peers in recent years, which keeps pressure on the BOT to support activity.
Labour market
- Unemployment rate, employment and participation rate: monthly labour indicators from the BOT's data. Thai unemployment is structurally very low, so the signal is in changes, not the level.
External sector and money
- Current account balance: monthly, in USD millions. Tourism receipts make it highly seasonal, and swings between surplus and deficit have historically moved the baht.
- Trade balance: the monthly goods balance from the balance of payments, in USD millions.
- M1 and M2: monthly money supply.
THB Release Timing
Thailand uses Indochina Time (Asia/Bangkok, UTC+7) all year, with no daylight saving, so local and UTC times are a fixed seven hours apart.
| Release | Publisher | Frequency | Local time (Asia/Bangkok) | UTC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPC policy rate decision | Bank of Thailand | 6 times a year | 14:00 | 07:00 |
| CPI, core CPI, PPI | TPSO | Monthly, early in the month | Varies, usually late morning | Varies, usually 03:00 to 05:00 |
| Monthly economic report (current account, trade, labour, money supply) | Bank of Thailand | Monthly, last business day | 14:30 | 07:30 |
| GDP | NESDC | Quarterly | Morning, around 09:00 to 09:30 | About 02:00 to 02:30 |
| Government bond yields | ThaiBMA | Daily | End of trading day | Daily |
TPSO's release time varies more than other publishers', which is why FXMacroData records the actual publication moment rather than a scheduled one. Upcoming dates are on the release calendar.
Worked Example: The August 2026 BOT Decision
At its 26 August 2026 meeting, the Bank of Thailand's Monetary Policy Committee held the policy rate at 1.00 per cent. The request:
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" "https://api.fxmacrodata.com/v1/announcements/thb/policy_rate?start_date=2026-08-01"The latest row returned (abridged to the fields used here):
{
"currency": "THB",
"indicator": "policy_rate",
"data": [
{
"date": "2026-08-26",
"val": 1.0,
"previous_value": 1.0,
"previous_date": "2026-06-24",
"announcement_datetime": 1787727600,
"announcement_datetime_local": "2026-08-26T14:00:00+07:00"
}
]
}The epoch 1787727600 is 07:00 UTC on 26 August 2026, which is 14:00 local time (Asia/Bangkok) on 26 August 2026.
The series shows how the BOT reached this level: 1.50 per cent in October 2025, a cut to 1.25 per cent in December 2025 and a further cut to 1.00 per cent in February 2026, followed by holds in April, June and August. With headline CPI at 2.53 per cent and core at 1.44 per cent for August 2026, both inside or near the 1 to 3 per cent target band, a backtest can check how USD/THB responded to each step and to each hold.
The inflation rows also show why the timing field matters in Thailand. TPSO published the August 2026 CPI, which jumped to 2.53 per cent from 1.95 per cent in July, at 10:21 Bangkok time on 7 September, while earlier months landed later in the day. A strategy that assumed a fixed release minute would have mistimed several of those prints; one keyed off announcement_datetime would not.
How Traders Use THB Data
- Inflation against the target band. The BOT's easing room depends on where headline and core CPI sit relative to the 1 to 3 per cent band. Readings near the lower edge make further cuts more likely.
- The current account and tourism. Monthly current account data capture tourism receipts. A seasonal or structural improvement tends to support the baht; a deficit month can weigh on it.
- US-Thai yield gap. The Thai 2-year yield against the US 2-year is a standard input into USD/THB models; foreign bond flows react to that gap.
- Gold and the baht. Thailand has an active retail gold market, and changes in gold prices can drive baht flows as gold is bought or sold. Traders often check gold alongside USD/THB when domestic data are quiet.
- Growth disappointment risk. Quarterly GDP growth, read with money supply and labour data, shows whether the economy is responding to lower rates.
The USD/THB dashboard shows these series alongside price.
Related Pages
- Bank of Thailand monetary policy guide for the policy framework and MPC schedule.
- Thailand indicator hub for every THB series with charts and API documentation.
- USD/THB dashboard for price, differentials and release markers.
- Release calendar for upcoming Thai events.
- Data coverage for all 22 currencies.
