John h. harland company is a large company with 5,200 employees and almost $800 million in annual sales. the company is best known for printing personal and business checks. harland analytical services is a technology company that produces software that enables banks to gauge the behavior of their customers by tracking their spending habits. in addition, harland owns scantron, a computerized testing and assessment company. the for john h. harland company includes its check-printing business, its financial software business, and its testing and assessment business.

The east asiatic company (eac), a danish company with subsidiaries throughout asia, has been funding its bangkok subsidiary primarily with u. s. dollar debt because of the cost and availability of dollar capital as opposed to thai baht-denominated (b) debt. the treasurer of eac-thailand is considering a 1-year bank loan for $247,000.the current spot rate is b32.03 /$, and the dollar-based interest is 6.78% for the 1-year period. 1-year loans are 12.04% in baht. a. assuming expected inflation rates of 4.3 % and 1.24% in thailand and the united states, respectively, for the coming year, according to purchase power parity, what would the effective cost of funds be in thai baht terms? b. if eac's foreign exchange advisers believe strongly that the thai government wants to push the value of the baht down against the dollar by5% over the coming year (to promote its export competitiveness in dollar markets), what might the effective cost of funds end up being in baht terms? c. if eac could borrow thai baht at 13% per annum, would this be cheaper than either part (a) or part (b) above?