thailands central bank on wednesday raised its policy rate in a bid to curb high inflation the bank of thailand said that its policy committee voted unanimously to increase its oneday repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 100 effective immediately five of seven economists polled by the wall street journal had expected the central bank would raise the key rate by 25 basis points while the other two projected a halfpercentagepoint increase some economists said inflationary pressures and the thai bahts weakness were at the top of the central banks agenda but they expected the central bank to increase rates only gradually given the uneven economic recovery central banks around the world have been raising rates in recent months following years of loose monetary policy to contain a surge in inflation fuelled by a recovery from the covid19 pandemic and the russiaukraine war in august the thai central bank lifted its policy rate for the first time in nearly four years thailands consumerprice index in august rose 786 from a year earlier well above the central banks inflation target range of 13 the thai baht has depreciated in recent sessions to the lowest level against the dollar since july 2006 it was recently trading around 3810 baht per dollar