Track Thailand's economy in English — business, trade, finance and market news, covered by Thai PBS World, Thailand's public broadcasting service.
SAN SALVADOR (AP) — El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours and President Nayib Bukele said the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning. For part of the morning, El Salvador’s president became tech support for a nation stepping into
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Vice Premier Liu He vowed the government would keep supporting the private sector amid growing concern a regulatory crackdown on a wide range of industries was hurting businesses. Liu said, “guidelines and policies for supporting the private economy have not changed… and will not change in the future,” according to a report from Xinhua news agency. He was speaking via video at a forum on Monday on the digital economy held in China’s northern
San Salvador (AFP) – El Salvador on Tuesday becomes the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as legal tender, despite widespread domestic skepticism and international warnings of risks for consumers. President Nayib Bukele’s government claims the move will give many Salvadorans access to bank services for the first time and save some $400 million in
1.6 billion baht has been generated from the “Phuket sandbox” scheme, which began on July 1st, amidst aworsening COVID-19 outbreak on the resort island, where over 200 cases per day have been recorded in recent days, according to Phuket Governor Narong Woonsiew. 27,609 tourists have joined the “sandbox” scheme so far, 10,355 of whom have
Following in the footsteps of the Phuket “sandbox” scheme, Thailand’s resort town of Hua Hin is seeking to reopen to foreign arrivals on October 1st, with the expectation that as many as 100,000 foreign tourists will visit and inject 1.2 billion baht into the local economy this year. “Hua Hin Recharge”, as the program is
The government has started to ease some lockdown restrictions from September 1. Department stores have been allowed to reopen most of their services after being closed for a month. Restaurants are allowed to serve a limited number of customers for indoor dining. Barbershops and beauty salons have been given the green light to reopen as
The joint committee of Thailand’s three private sector organizations has told the government not to re-impose lockdown restrictions, but to accelerate vaccinations to cover 70% of the country’s population before the full reopening of the borders to foreign arrivals. Today (Wednesday) is the first day some partial lockdown measures have been eased, including allowing dine-in
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand will start collecting value added tax (VAT) from foreign technology companies and expects to raise at least 5 billion baht ($154.70 million) in additional revenue each year, a senior official said. Foreign platforms providing electronic services in Thailand will have to register for VAT payments, senior finance ministry official, Ekniti Nitithanpraphas,
Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health will seek approval from the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), at its meeting this Friday, of guidelines for restaurants and other eateries in COVID-19 “dark red” provinces, should they are allowed to resume limited dine-in services. Public Health Permanent Secretary Dr. Kiattibhoom Vongrachit said yesterday (Tuesday) that Public Health
Hong Kong (AFP) – Bitcoin broke back above $50,000 on Monday for the first time in three months as investors piled back into the cryptocurrency on bargain-buying. The unit climbed around two percent to $50,249.15, its highest since mid-May, when it began tumbling on a range of issues including China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies and Tesla boss
PayPal on Monday said it will this week begin to allow users in Britain to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency through the online payment platform for the first time. The expansion into the hot digital money trend follows similar moves by the payments giant in the United States earlier this year. The US firm said
The Thai economy rebounded in the second quarter, growing by 7.5 percent year on year, after a 12.1 percent contraction during April-June last year. The high economic growth in the second quarter compared to the same period last year is the result of an unusually low base, and is not an accurate reflection of the economic
