Bangkok Post

Junta nabs at least 35 as kyat plunges

YANGON: Myanmar’s junta is cracking down on gold and foreign exchange traders and agents selling foreign real estate, with 35 arrests announced in the last two days as part of efforts to stabilise its rapidly depreciati­ng currency.

State media said these include five people charged with illegally selling condominiu­m units in Thailand and 14 people arrested for allegedly destabilis­ing the foreign currency exchange rate.

The kyat currency hit a record low last week, plummeting to around 4,500 per dollar on the black market, according to five foreign exchange traders.

Black market rates for the kyat have for years been significan­tly higher than the reference rate of Myanmar’s central bank, currently set at 2,100 kyat per dollar.

“The government is working towards the stability of the country and the rule of law,” the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said yesterday, carrying photograph­s of over a dozen suspects.

“Security organisati­ons have taken action against business people engaged in speculatio­n to hinder the country’s economic developmen­t,” it said.

Another 21 people have been arrested for allegedly destabilis­ing gold prices, the newspaper reported on Monday.

The impoverish­ed country of about 55 million people has been in political and economic turmoil since a 2021 coup when the military ousted an elected civilian government after a decade of tentative democracy and economic reform.

Myanmar’s economy, already fragile after decades of military rule and the pandemic, has wilted since the coup, with foreign investment drying up, exacerbate­d by western sanctions.

Poverty rates have almost doubled from 24.8% in 2017 to 49.7% in 2023, according to the United Nations Developmen­t Programme.

The shadow National Unity Government (NUG), comprising former lawmakers and other junta opponents, said in a press conference on Monday that the military government has printed large volumes of currency since taking power and ramped up military spending, exacerbati­ng the country’s economic problems.