What is the Thai baht (THB)?
The Thai baht was introduced in 1897 by the ruling King at the time, King Chulalongkorn. For the time period between World War II and 1980, the Baht was fixed to the US Dollar at an exchange rate of 1$ = 20 baht. It proceeded to slowly decrease in value, and was again pegged to an exchange rate of 25:1 from 1985 until July 2, 1997 when the Asian financial crisis took its toll on Thailand. The Asian financial crisis, also known as the Asian currency crisis, started in July 1997 in Thailand, and affected currencies, stock markets, and other asset prices of several Asian countries, many part of the East Asian Tigers. Triggered by events in Latin America, Western investors lost confidence in securities in East Asia and began to pull money out, creating a snowball effect. Thailand, namely, was one of the nations most profoundly affected by the crisis. Following the crisis, it was decided that the baht be placed on a floating exchange rate which halved its value, to its lowest rate of 56:1 i
