BANGKOK, 17 May 2012 – The Finance Ministry has brushed aside calls for the issuance of more coins to help ease the pressure of rising goods prices.
Deputy Finance Minister Wirun Techapaiboon has assured that all types of coins are sufficiently circulating in the system and will not fall short of public demand.
Mr. Wirun is imploring local producers to stop their claims of coin shortage and not to relate such an issue to the current issue of rising goods prices and, at the same time, not to use it as a pretext to raise goods prices by 5-10 baht instead of 1-2 baht.
He said that the Treasury Department has been adding more coins of all types and sizes to the local system, and merchants can always change banknotes for needed coins at all state-run banks.
According to the Finance Ministry’s data, around 1.58 billion pieces of 10-baht coins, about 2.4 billion pieces of 5-baht coins, approximately 996 million pieces of 2-baht coins and roughly 12 billion pieces of 1-baht coins are now available in the Thai economy.
