Economy and commerce

We now see downside risks to Thailand’s growth outlook in 2020, given the impact from the coronavirus outbreak on the tourism industry and broader economic sentiment.Our core view is Thai economic growth would rebound to 3.0% this year, following an estimated 2.5% expansion in 2019. ...

The Bank of Thailand (BoT) slashed its policy rate by 25 basis points to a fresh record low of 1% at this year’s first meeting in an effort to shore up an economy battered by the coronavirus epidemic and the months-long delay in the fiscal ...

Consumer sentiment keeps falling, with the deadly virus outbreak adding to key concerns in addition to the delayed fiscal 2020 budget, the domestic economic slowdown and political instability.The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) on Wednesday reported the consumer confidence index dropped to ...

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking has revised downward the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year to between 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent from the previously forecast 2.5 to 3 per cent.The revision is in line with the ...

Some 30 product items have promising export prospects and need special effort from the government to increase shipments, says the Commerce Ministry’s planning unit.Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director-general of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office, said agricultural, food and industrial items are among the products, contributing a ...

The Bank of Thailand has relaxed conditions for its Debt Clinic, a scheme that pools unsecured bad loans owed to multiple creditors, to cover cases that have a single debtor and expanded qualified creditors to specialised financial institutions (SFIs) to step up efforts to keep ...

Fresh incentives meant to spur private investment of 110 billion baht and add 0.25 percentage points to economic growth sailed through the cabinet on Tuesday.The measures include a corporate income tax deduction of 2.5 times expenditure on machinery, a one-year tax exemption for importing new ...

Cross-border trade fell by 3.4% in 2019, weighed down by the strong baht, volatile foreign exchange and the prolonged trade war.The Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department said on Tuesday that the country’s overall cross-border trade, including transit trade, amounted to 1.337 trillion baht, falling short ...

The Finance Ministry has dropped its estimate of 2019 growth in gross domestic product (GDP) from 2.8 to 2.5 per cent and its forecast for 2020 from 3.3 to 2.8 per cent.“The economy in 2019 is now estimated to have grown by 2.5 per cent ...

The government plans to introduce additional measures next month to boost consumption and tourism, its finance minister said on Tuesday, as it tries to shore up a faltering economy potentially facing a sharp blow from the coronavirus in China.Tourism, a key growth driver and previously ...