Economy and commerce

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 ...

Thailand’s exports in May amounted to $16.278 billion, the lowest in the past four years, the Trade Policy and Strategy Office said on Wednesday (June 24).Exports were hit due to the ongoing global Covid-19 crisis, its impact on consumers’ purchasing power, as well as the ...

The Finance Ministry is ready to consider retail operators’ proposal for tax breaks on shopping to stimulate domestic spending, says Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana.The ministry has delegated related agencies, including the Fiscal Policy Office, the Revenue Department and the Excise Department, to examine the possibilities, ...

Investors are likely to shift from risk assets to safe-haven assets due to uncertainty following the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, experts said.The baht this week moved between 30.94 and 31.24 against the dollar.The dollar strengthened due to uncertainty following rising Covid-19 cases in the ...

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) will submit its economic rehabilitation plan to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha today, urging the government to speed up issuance of soft loans and technological help for farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Speaking on Thursday, FTI chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree ...

The Bank of Thailand is to unveil a relief package today to help debtors ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, as the three-month blanket debt holiday is expiring at the end of this month.“The regulator considers the ceiling rate reduction for credit cards as reasonable because ...

This moment is a uniquely testing time for us all. The speed at which Covid-19 has spread across the world and the severity of the disruption to the global economy have been unprecedented.With the pandemic affecting every element of business, from the robustness of supply ...