Not long after the middle-aged man left, he appeared in the bank manager's office. He was there to report the good news to Malaga. He also needed to report to higher levels, and if necessary, he had an obligation to brief the media.
At this moment, Malaga appeared calm, and his composed demeanor earned the middle-aged man's admiration.
"So, they really did retreat?"
"Yes!"
The middle-aged man was the vice president of BOT in charge of foreign exchange, and also the commander-in-chief of this operation. Although he secretly wanted to replace the current president of Malaga, he outwardly answered Malaga's questions seriously and continued speaking.
“Trading in major markets has now returned to normal levels. Although there are still quite a few open futures contracts, the total amount is not enough to pose a direct threat to our foreign exchange reserves.”
"Very good." Looking at his deputy's aggressive gaze, Malaga felt a headache coming on. He rubbed his temples before slowly speaking.
"In that case, you can announce it to the public!"
"Are you really letting me announce it?"
The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed. Such an opportunity to show his face was extremely rare, and he never expected Malaga to give it up.
“That’s right!” Malaga nodded.
He was well aware of his deputy's thoughts, but he didn't care. In fact, he even hoped that his deputy could take over his current position.
To be honest, he has done a very good job in this position, but there is limited room for advancement. In addition, the Thai economy is currently facing significant problems, which are clearly not something that can be resolved by a few simple monetary policies and central bank measures.
"Yes, sir, I will definitely promote it well." As if afraid that Malaga would change his mind, the middle-aged man readily agreed to this seemingly unreasonable request.
Seeing that Malaga's eyes were half-closed again, the middle-aged man tactfully left the bank manager's office and thoughtfully closed the door behind him.
Click!
Hearing the door close, Malaga opened his half-closed eyes, a mocking expression on his face, and muttered to himself, "What an idiot. I don't know what the higher-ups saw in him. With this level of ability, he wants to manage a bot? He's dreaming!"
The middle-aged man, oblivious to the approaching crisis, walked out with a smug look on his face. He was blinded by his brief victory, but Malaga was not. He knew better than anyone that the Thai baht was not truly out of danger, and was even more precarious than ever before.
Although Thailand successfully withstood the attack on the Thai baht by international speculative capital, the international speculative capital did not work in vain.
In the spot market, international speculative capital has consumed a large amount of their foreign exchange reserves. Even more devastating is the futures market, where Thailand has consumed far more of its dollar foreign exchange reserves than in the spot market.
After all, in the spot market, they have the Singapore Monetary Authority and Hong Kong's support to help them resist. But in the futures market, only Thailand's BOT stands alone, appearing weak and isolated.
The reason why others were unaware of this situation, including the IMF observers who came to inspect, was because Malaga and his cronies did not add the depletion of foreign exchange reserves from the futures market to their balance sheets.
Everyone naively believed that Thailand still had a large amount of US dollar foreign exchange reserves, but the reality was quite the opposite.
In the past few months, nearly $30 billion of the $40 billion in foreign exchange reserves held by the BOT have been depleted, which is equivalent to three-quarters of the country's total foreign exchange reserves.
To put it bluntly, Thailand is currently in a state of outward strength but inward weakness. If international speculative capital launches another attack like this, Thailand will likely have no choice but to announce a devaluation of the baht.
Very few people know the actual situation, not including middle-aged people. Thailand also hopes that this concealment will deter international speculative capital from launching an attack.
Indeed, they achieved tremendous success. Quantum Fund, for example, reduced its positions by $500 million, and Bridgewater Associates kept its positions below $1 billion. Tiger Global Management, meanwhile, repaid all its Thai baht loans and gained the right to operate in the futures market.
However, the truth is that due to the deteriorating domestic economic environment in Thailand, more and more foreign capital is withdrawing, which makes it difficult for foreign exchange reserves to be effectively replenished under such circumstances.
Thinking about all this, Malaga felt a headache coming on. He really didn't know how long the Thai baht could hold on under these circumstances. Maybe a day, maybe a week, but for now, he would just have to hold on for as long as he could.
He had suggested to the second-in-command that the Thai baht be devalued at an appropriate time, but this plan was immediately rejected by the top leadership. The reason was simple: Thailand believed its economy was gradually improving and could even become the leader in Southeast Asia.
Given this premise, they should be even less inclined to back down at this time.
This even made Malaga consider resigning. As for that ambitious middle-aged man, if he wanted to show off his presence in front of the media, let him do so.
Bangkok time, 5 p.m.
The bot held a grand press conference in the newsroom.
The middle-aged man, dressed and styled in a completely new way, had clearly put a lot of effort into his appearance. Facing numerous television cameras and microphones, he appeared extremely confident and announced loudly.
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