Private sector committee slashes economic growth projection
Private sector committee slashes economic growth projection
BANGKOK: Thailand’s Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) have slashed the forecast for the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year to 0-1.5%, from an earlier estimate of 0.5-2%.
Photo: NNT
Thai Bankers Association (TBA) chairman Payong Srivanich said the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak and spread of the virulent Delta variant have led to stringent measures being rolled out by the government to contain the outbreak, reports state news agency NNT.
The stronger measures have impacted economic activity, employment and workers’ incomes. Moreover, travel restrictions and quarantine measures will significantly impact domestic tourism in the third quarter of this year, the agency said.
4 A pedestrian walks past the entrance to Bang Kapi market in Bangkok which recently reopened after being closed temporarily in June. Pornprom Satrabhaya
A private sector council has cut Thailand s economic growth projection this year to 0-1.5%, mainly due to the prolonged Covid-19 outbreak.
The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) decided to slash the country s gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for this year to 0-1.5% in Wednesday s meeting from an earlier estimate of 0.5-2%.
Payong Srivanich, chairman of the Thai Bankers Association (TBA), said the prolonged outbreak and spread of the virulent Delta variant had led to stringent measures by the government to contain the outbreak. The stronger measures have impacted economic activities, employment and labourers income.
The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry, and Banking (JSCCIB) expects the Thai economy to pick up in the fourth quarter this year faster than earlier projections of the first quarter of next year if the government can maintain momentum of its vaccine programme.
The Mall Group, the operator of The Mall, The Emporium, EmQuartier and Siam Paragon, has collaborated with six leading financial institutions and the Bank of Thailand (BoT) to design special soft loan packages for its partners, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to restore their business capacity and extend their business in the post-Covid-19 era.
2 05 2021
There’s a story at something called the Atlas Institute for International Affairs which sounds very 1960s and argues that militaries kept “fed” with taxpayer funds don’t intervene politically. This long discredited notion is in part based on work on Thailand. The fact that coups in Thailand bear no relationship to that military’s ability to grab loot from the taxpayer should alert the authors. Think of “self-coups,” coups against military leaders and other rightists, and, most recently, the coup against Yingluck Shinawatra, when spending on the military increased.
That said, there’s no doubt that Thai military leaders love kit and money. One graph in the Atlas story demonstrates how the military has benefited by sucking the taxpayer of the people’s money.