Lancelot
Full time employment: Posting here.
According to the folks at http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory on Dec 2, 2005 the USD was fetching B41.24 per USD. As of today Dec 2 2006, our banged up buck reels in a paltry B35.87 per USD, about 13% less than last year.
I've raised my budget by $100 to $1,100 / month or $13,200 / year. So factoring in the weaker $, I now need about 15% more $ (or $15,180) to buy the same basket of goods. (41.24 - 35.87) / 35.87.
Another way to look at it is as follows: on Dec 2005, Joe had $1 million USD and he could exchange that for 41,240,000 THB @ B41.24 / USD. However one year later Joe's million bucks bought 35.87 THB, a loss of 5.37 MILLION baht. That "lost" baht would have purchased a very nice condo here in Bangkok....
Anyway, Thailand is still affordable, but not quite the deal it's been in the past.
The Philippines anyone?!?
Lance
PS-According to the Bangkok Post, the stronger Thai baht is due to massive foreign direct investment in Thailand. On the other hand, Thai exporters (rice, rubber, shrimp, garmets...) are complaining about losing market share. They claim that their threshold of pain is THB 37.5 / USD.
I've raised my budget by $100 to $1,100 / month or $13,200 / year. So factoring in the weaker $, I now need about 15% more $ (or $15,180) to buy the same basket of goods. (41.24 - 35.87) / 35.87.
Another way to look at it is as follows: on Dec 2005, Joe had $1 million USD and he could exchange that for 41,240,000 THB @ B41.24 / USD. However one year later Joe's million bucks bought 35.87 THB, a loss of 5.37 MILLION baht. That "lost" baht would have purchased a very nice condo here in Bangkok....
Anyway, Thailand is still affordable, but not quite the deal it's been in the past.
The Philippines anyone?!?
Lance
PS-According to the Bangkok Post, the stronger Thai baht is due to massive foreign direct investment in Thailand. On the other hand, Thai exporters (rice, rubber, shrimp, garmets...) are complaining about losing market share. They claim that their threshold of pain is THB 37.5 / USD.