Two members of the Monetary Policy Committee called for the rate to be kept unchanged. The Thai rate had been kept at 2.5% since the fourth quarter last year.
Thailand’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than four years, a surprise move given it has long resisted the government’s calls to ease monetary policy.
The Bank of Thailand voted 5-2 to cut the one-day repurchase rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.25% at Wednesday’s meeting, as predicted by only five out of the 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The last time it cut rates was in May 2020.
