Thai economy on recovery by year end – PM
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that Thailand’s recession hit economy should be on a recovery track by the year end with a possible 2% growth by next year depending on how the global economy fares.
Though the political protests in Bangkok have kept foreign investors away and taken a toll on the tourism industry, the Prime Minister was optimistic about core economy strengths of the country. Meanwhile, the government today sought senate’s approval for plans to finance part of a 1.43 trillion Baht ($42 Billion) stimulus package to revive the recession hit economy.
The upper house of the parliament is considering an executive decree plus a bill to borrow a total of 800 billion Baht outside the normal fiscal process to help finance the three year package.
The programme breakdown is as follows:
- A 400 billion Baht royal executive decree approved by the lower House of Representatives last week is expected to win the senate approval. This fund will be financed by domestic borrowing, mostly through new issues of government bonds and treasury bills
- The second 400 billion Baht is a legislative bill which will require more time to pass.
- The remaining 630 Billion Baht would come from normal annual fiscal budgeting between 2009 and 2011.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij says that this package will cover more than 6,000 development projects. It is expected to create 400,000-500,000 jobs a year.