Thailand Remains on US Treasury's Currency Monitoring List

The US Treasury Department announced on Thursday in its latest semi-annual report that Thailand remains on its list for enhanced monitoring of foreign exchange practices. Alongside Singapore and Switzerland, Thailand met just one of the three criteria: a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States, a material current account surplus, and persistent, one-sided intervention in the foreign exchange market. These countries are expected to be removed from the list if they meet fewer than two criteria in the next report. The report stated that no major US trading partners manipulated their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage in 2025. However, 10 economies—China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland—are on Treasury's 'monitoring list' for their currency practices and macroeconomic policies. All were on the monitoring list in the January 2026 report. The criteria for inclusion on the monitoring list are a significant bilateral trade surplus with the US, a material current account surplus, and persistent, one-sided intervention in the foreign exchange market. Previously, the semi-annual exercise traditionally focused on whether countries were engaging in one-sided currency intervention or other manipulation to resist appreciation against the dollar, thereby keeping their exports cheaper. However, starting this year, the Treasury announced in January that it is now monitoring more broadly the extent to which economies that choose to smooth exchange rate movements do so to resist depreciation pressure in the same manner as they do to resist appreciation pressure. This shift in focus suggests a broader intent to scrutinize exchange rate policies. Source: Bangkok Post