The governor of the Bank of Thailand, Prasarn Trairatvorakul, this week told a conference that the country has been able to "cushion" itself from "overreactions" in global financial markets over recent months thanks to its strong international reserve position.

Prasarn said: "One can never put a price on the comfort which a strong international reserves position brings", inviting his audience to "imagine if we had to raise domestic interest rates to defend the currency that is weakening because