Track Thailand's economy in English — business, trade, finance and market news, covered by Thai PBS World, Thailand's public broadcasting service.
Political stability has a key influence over a country’s economic performance both in the short and the long term. In Thailand, anti-establishment protests that kicked off last year are rocking political stability, adding to the business community’s worries. The economy shrank 6.1 per cent last year under the impact of COVID-19, with no more than
The OECD sharply raised its 2021 global growth forecast on Tuesday as the deployment of vaccines and a huge US stimulus programme have greatly improved economic prospects. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says it now expects the global economy to grow by 5.6 percent, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from its
According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, the country exported 5.72 million tonnes of rice in 2020, which is a 24.5% decrease year on year. The export value was 115 billion baht. This makes Thailand the world’s fourth largest rice exporter, behind India, Vietnam and Pakistan. 421,477 tonnes of Thai rice were exported in January 2021,
Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn is scheduled to meet with representatives of hotels and other tourism-related businesses on Thailand’s famous resort island of Phuket on Wednesday, to discuss the proposed “area quarantine” concept for foreign travelers and tourists. The concept will allow travellers arriving from abroad more freedom of movement and is
Thailand ranked 3rd in ASEAN, 9th among 40 Asia-pacific countries and 42nd in the World on the most recent on Economic Freedom index. Singapore tops the list for the second consecutive year, followed by New Zealand and Australia. Thailand has a business freedom index of 85.3 out of 100. This is a big improvement over
Business leaders and academics insist solving Thailand’s economic crisis must be the top priority in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. “The new ministers should also be highly competent and capable of pulling Thailand out of the middle-income trap,” said Saowaruj Rattanakhamfu, senior research fellow at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI). Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is set
A group of leading tour operators and hoteliers in Thailand has launched a campaign to reopen the country on July 1, 2021. They say vaccines are a game changer that allow for the reopening of the country and for quarantine requirements to be dropped. Launched on March 2, the #OpenThailandSafely campaign is the initiative of
After two postponements, Thai Airways International submitted its rehabilitation plan to the Legal Execution Department officials today (Tuesday), under which the debt-ridden national flag carrier plans to slash staff expenses from about 30 billion baht annually to about 12 billion baht, or to reduce its staff by half, to under 15,000, in two years. Under
THAI airways is selling its Laksi training center building, in the Bangkhen district of Bangkok, its Nok-Air shares, its Bangkok Aviation Fuel Services (BAFS) shares and Boeing 737- 400 engines, after the bankruptcy court gave the go-ahead to do so. THAI airways has been hit hard by limited travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which
Legal challenges await the Revenue Department’s plan to collect value-added tax (VAT) from cross-border e-services for the first time in Thailand, given the threat of counter measures from the US as in the case of France despite the difference in what they entail. Facebook has recently blocked news content in Australia over a planned law
A “vaccine passport” has emerged as the best hope for Thai tourism businesses devastated by COVID-19. The passport, which could exempt inoculated tourists from the mandatory 14-day quarantine, might help the tourism industry slowly get back on its feet. What is a vaccine passport? In essence, a vaccine passport is documentation – very likely an
The state-owned Government Savings Bank (GSB) has set aside a 10 billion baht fund for lending to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs engaged in tourism and tourism-related businesses, to help them weather the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. GSB Director Vithai Rattanakorn said today (Wednesday) that SMEs interested in receiving low-interest loans from the
