Thai central bank worried at larger economic impact after virus surge

By The Nation

 

Chayawadee Chai-Anant, senior director of the BOT’s economic and policy department

 

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has listed three concerns for economic recovery now that Thailand and other countries have been hit by a new surge of Covid-19 cases.

 

The fresh outbreak may disrupt the recovery more than calculated in the central bank’s December 20 assessment, Chayawadee Chai-Anant, senior director of the BOT’s economic and policy department, warned on Wednesday.

 

The central bank is watching closely to see whether the government can contain the outbreak, she said.

 

The second concern is that Thai exports may be hit hard by fresh lockdown restrictions imposed abroad, she warned.

 

The third concern is the Thai labour market. The job market’s recovery remains very fragile, with unemployment still high and compensation payments not dropping, she pointed out.

 

Jobless workers in the social security system accounted for 7.8 per cent of total unemployment in November, compared to 8.1 per cent in October. Those receiving compensation payments accounted for 4.7 per cent, little change from 4.9 per cent in the month before.

 

Those working less than 20 hours per week both in farm and non-farm sectors dropped slightly to 2.2 million last month from 2.5 million in October. The weak labour market indicates the economic recovery does not have a broad base, said Chayawadee.

 

Partial economic recovery in November was driven by government stimulus while contraction of exports decelerated to 2.3 per cent. The baht appreciated sharply in November after Joe Biden won the US presidential election and vaccine development advanced – good news that fuelled capital inflows into Thai stock and bond markets.

 

The baht’s appreciation decelerated in December as the US dollar rebound, she added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30400508

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-12-31

 

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Fascinating. So, the second photo in the article is a suggestion from the women down south that the BOT better start panning for gold?

From what I see BOT has spent peanuts on the pandemic so much so a lunar rocket is on the cards along with other fantasy projects the virus is out of any ministerial control and it's going to wreak havoc with what's left of the economy as the government  has already totalled the tourist cash cow it will get very expensive very fast over to Prayut what are you going to do PM????  

Stand by for inflation to take off in Thailand and products needed fir daily life to increase in price as the baht still climbs.  Looking not so bright unfortunately.  It does appear that lockdowns are accelerating in provinces.  This will continue in my view and will be like March and April with malls closed, restrictions on eating out and so on.  They allowed travel for the holidays and New Years and this added to the spread of the virus because they believed it was only on the migrant locations.

Edited December 30, 20205 yr by ThailandRyan

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The baht’s appreciation decelerated in December as the US dollar rebound, she added.

Not sure our American revolutionary friends across the pond would agree with that nonsense !

So, the BOT got it's December predictions wrong and is now blaming the correction on the virus.

 

I guess I need glasses.  I swear I saw USD/Baht at 29.92, a multi-year high at year end.  Or perhaps she meant to say the Chinese Yuan has hit new highs for the year...