Economy and commerce

Uncertainty is unhealthy for investments and the prime minister is being urged to exercise his leadership by spelling out whether or not the current economic team will stay put in the next reshuffle.Some economists have predicted the economy could get a lot worse before it ...

Thailand’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a budget of up to 100 billion baht ($3.2 billion) for projects aimed at reviving an economy hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the prime minister said.The projects will mainly support households and farmers as well as providing jobs, Prayuth Chan-ocha ...

The Commerce Ministry has revised its projection for 2020 inflation downwards despite an upward trend as the lockdown is lifted.Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director-general of the ministry’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office, said that while inflation fell 1.57 per cent year on year in June, it had ...

National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General General Somsak Rungsita said on Wednesday that the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration is now discussing accepting foreigners, both tourists (travel bubble) and business people (business bubble).Although Thailand has started to allow entry to more foreigners, tourism under the travel ...

Thailand’s economy is expected to be severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, shrinking by at least 5% this year and taking more than two years to return to pre-pandemic GDP output levels, the World Bank said on Tuesday.In the baseline scenario, the economy is projected ...

The number of firms registering in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) from January-May this year dropped 13.35 per cent year on year to 2,731, Department of Business Development director general Vuttikrai Leewiraphan announced today.Their total registered capital was Bt6.790 billion, down 18.32 per cent year ...

The government will seek cabinet approval next week for a 50 billion baht fund to help small businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Somkid Jatusripitak said on Monday.The fund will provide soft loans to those firms that have no access to funding, the deputy prime ...

The National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) has screened the first round of 213 projects worth 101.48 billion baht out of a 400 billion baht budget earmarked to help those suffering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.Thosaporn Sirisumphand, secretary-general of the NESDC, said ...

The Bank of Thailand is fine-tuning the process of offering 500 billion baht in soft loans with an aim to provide virus-hit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with better access.The central bank has talked with banks about tweaking the scrutiny process to give SMEs easier ...

The Bank of Thailand has reduced its economic outlook to a contraction of 8.1% this year, deeper than the 1997 financial crisis, but kept the policy rate on hold at 0.50%.The latest economic forecast for 2020 is worse than the record contraction of 7.6% for ...