[realnilkless]

The car bomb attacks in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district and Yala have not affected the money market, Singchai Bunyayothin, senior director for money market division at the Bank of Thailand, said on Tuesday afternoon.

“Foreign direct investment still continued to flow into and out of Thailand as usual. The value of the baht was stable in line with market mechanism of the region,” said Mr Singchai.

It was not necessary for the central bank to intervene in the money market or to implement additional measures to stabilise the baht.

Casualties in Yala car bomb attacks on Saturday were confirmed as 11 people dead and 106 wounded. Of the injured, 25 were still being treated at Yala hospitals.

The car bombing at Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in Hat Yai on the same day left three people dead and 416 others injured.

Somchart Pimthanapoonporn, chief of Songkhla Tourism Business Council and the Hat Yai-Songkhla Hoteliers Association, said the car bomb in Hat Yai has hurt tourism and local business. More than half of the 12,500 room bookings for Songkran had been cancelled as a result.

He believed it would be three to six months before the situation returned to normal.