Track Thailand's economy in English — business, trade, finance and market news, covered by Thai PBS World, Thailand's public broadcasting service.
Famed as Thailand’s top “economics tsar”, former deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak has served both elected governments and a junta regime during his long and colorful career. Somkid, 68, abruptly quit the current coalition government led by the Palang Pracharath Party last July, citing health reasons. Saying goodbye with him were four ministers of his economics
Small and medium-sized businesses in areas of Thailand under semi-lockdown and control measures will be granted a debt and interest moratorium for July and August, as part of a new financial rescue package jointly worked out by the Bank of Thailand, the Thai Bankers’ Association and the Foreign Banks Association. This package is also being
The Finance Ministry is under pressure to boost tax revenue as Thailand has run fiscal deficits for several years, resulting in high public debt. The COVID-19 crisis has worsened the situation, with public debt now approaching the “safety limit” set at 60 percent of GDP. The pandemic has forced the government to hike borrowing significantly compared to pre-COVID
Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia Group said it will buy Indonesian ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek’s Thailand business in a stock swap, giving Gojek a 4.76% stake in the airline’s lifestyle platform. AirAsia will acquire Gojek’s business in return for $50 million worth of shares in AirAsia SuperApp, valuing the division at around $1 billion, more
The world’s employment levels will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until at least 2023, the Organisation for Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD) said on Wednesday (July 7) as it unveiled its latest global unemployment outlook. The OECD registered a 6.6 percent unemployment rate among member countries in its latest outlook, with 22 million more people
The industrial confidence index for June has fallen again for the third consecutive month, to the lowest point of 80.7 in 12 months and from 82.3 in May, according to Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) President Suphan Mongkolsuthee. He attributed the steady reduction in confidence over the past three months to the third wave of the
Container shipping prices have reached record highs some 18 months after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic which disrupted maritime logistics chains and drove demand sky-high. “We are basically running out of vessels and of empty containers,” Alan Murphy, head of the consultancy Sea Intelligence, told AFP. “There’s been a massive shortage of empty containers,
Thailand’s household debt in the first quarter of 2021 increased to 14.13 trillion baht, representing 90.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 89.4% of GDP for the fourth quarter of last year, and is at its highest in 18 years, when the Bank of Thailand started collecting data on household debt in the country,
Thailand’s currency collapsed on July 2, 1997, as market speculation forced the country to abandon its fixed exchange rate and the central bank depleted its coffers to protect the baht. The baht plummeted from Bt25 per US dollar to around Bt50 before eventually recovering to the Bt30-Bt32 level we see now. The baht debacle came
A US judge on Monday dismissed the blockbuster antitrust action against Facebook filed last year by federal and state regulators, helping lift the value of the social media giant above $1 trillion for the first time. Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court of Washington, DC dismissed the cases filed in December by the
Thailand’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has set aside 7.5 billion baht, from the Social Security Fund and government borrowing, to compensate individuals and businesses affected by the month-long partial lockdown in Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani provinces. According to the CCSA’s announcement, issued on Sunday, all construction
One to two billion Baht in revenue will be lost per day, resulting in an economic contraction of about 0.1%-0.3%, amid a new round of COVID-19 restrictions beginning today (Monday) in Bangkok and nine other provinces, according to the Thai Chamber of Commerce. The restrictions should not last too long and an accelerated vaccination effort,
