Thailand’s economic outlook is said to be the worst in Asia

Immigration officers stand in front of an empty arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi airport amid the spread of the coronavirus disease on Friday.

Thailand has been cited as a success story in containing the coronavirus outbreak, having gone more than 40 days without any local transmission of Covid-19.

According to the Bank of Thailand, Thailands total value of goods they produce and service is expected to contract at least 8.1% this year. That’s worse than official forecasts for any of the main economies across Asia, and would be Thailand’s biggest GDP decline ever, surpassing its decline during the Asian financial crisis 20 years ago.

“Thailand has large exposure as a tourism hub, close to 15% of GDP, and it also has large exposure of the export-oriented sector,” said Kiatipong Ariyapruchya, senior economist for Thailand at the World Bank. “Hence the large shock to GDP.”

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predict Thailand’s economy will contract more than others in Southeast Asia, at 6%, and with a weaker rebound in 2021 of 4%.

Earlier, Thailand’s Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha, responded to Opposition claims that his government has mismanaged the country’s economy, to the extent that it had to borrow 1.9 trillion baht, approximately US$9.8 billion, to cushion the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to the criticism in Parliament, the Prime Minister clarified that only one trillion baht is to be borrowed by the Finance Ministry, and the remaining 900 billion baht are Bank of Thailand reserves, adding that the Government would not need to borrow so much if the global pandemic had not hit so hard.

The Prime Minister also accused the Government of not effectively addressing the COVID-19 crisis and its associated economic problems, citing long queues waiting to receive donations at food banks across the nation.

Thailand siad they couldn’t afford COVID-19 cash relief payouts to citizens back in April

Thailand is struggling to pay out the 5,000 baht (S$218) cash relief intended for workers affected by the ongoing pandemic. CNA’s Saksith Saiyasombut explains why it would take time for more funds to be raised, and how this would affect an already badly hit economy.

73,000 farmers to receive Covid-19 aid on appeal on July 8th

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) will transfer COVID-19 financial aid to 73,000 farmers on July 8th who have passed the appeal review process.

Agriculture and Cooperatives permanent secretary Anan Suwanrat said the ministry’s appeal panel has examined almost 190,000 appeals lodged by farmers and approved 73,975, bringing the total number of farmers eligible for Covid-19 cash handouts to 7,596,747.

 July 2020 for 10 million registered farmers in the amount of 150,000 million baht including website opening www.remedyfarmers.com Facilitate farmers to receive financial compensation through the website. Which is a medium for farmers to verify rights, lists and information

The ministry revealed that more than one million of about 7.5 million registered farming households had failed to update their registrations in the last three years.

Farming households who fail to update their registration for three consecutive years after June 23, 2017 will lose their status and be unable to receive associated rights, warned the ministry.

Of the 7,522,003 registered farming households, data has only been updated for 6,196,346 households

 

Source: Why Thailand’s dire economic outlook is worst in Asia

(Reuters photo)

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