Thai parliament debates bill on $16 billion borrowing to counter virus outbreak

[webfact]

FILE PHOTO: Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha arrives before a family photo session with new cabinet ministers at the Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, March 30, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's parliament on Wednesday started debating a bill to allow the government to borrow an additional 500 billion baht ($16 billion) to help the tourism-reliant country deal with its latest and biggest coronavirus outbreak so far.

 

Southeast Asia's second-largest economy is expected to grow only 1.5%-2.5% this year after last year's 6.1% slump, with tourism still struggling, the government predicts.

 

Given the outbreak has not yet been contained, there is an urgent and unavoidable need for more funding to help quickly restore the economy to normal, Finance minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith told the House of Representatives, which plans to debate the bill until Thursday.

 

Thailand's current outbreak has accounted for most of its coronavirus infections and fatalities, while it started its mass vaccination drive on Monday.

 

($1 = 31.14 baht)

 

(Reporting by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Ed Davies)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-06-09

 

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[holy cow cm]

The Junta's version Monopoly money. And you can take that any way you want. 

[Excel]

Well of course this 16 billion will go a long way to help, once the customary 30% is creamed off into certain offshore accounts. Then  of course the well connected major hotel owners should be awarded the largest remaining share as there are significant birthday presents required very soon. Then of course a big chunk has to go to the well connected tour operators . Guess there will be none left to look after the 100s of thousands of normal folk like staff and local food venders who have become almost destitute. But there again they are of little importance to this Thai administration.

[worgeordie]

Need to buy some new troughs first.......need somewhere to put the money.

regards Worgeordie

[colinneil]

Just now, Excel said:

normal folk like staff and local food venders who have become almost destitute. But there again they are of little importance to this Thai administration.

Come on now dont be mean, little importance to this Thai administration, you are being far too generous, local folk here are of no importance what so ever to Prayut and his twisted money grabbing pals.

Only thing they care about is topping up their offshore accounts.

[ThailandRyan]

Why do they need to debate the bill on 16 billion.  I thought the lead man for the country gave them plenty to handle the issues at hand or am I mistaken

[audaciousnomad]

They should be careful who they borrow from. Don't get a loan from China...they will have you by the ballz with it. Look at Sri Lanka and their ship port, which they could not pay back the loan for. They got owned for 99 years! ????

[holy cow cm]

Not sure but they are supposedly raising money from gov savings bonds with a return of 1.8% or so with 15yr maturity rate locked in, and probably internally what they call borrowing from the Thai domestic market through IOU's (wink wink), Thai Bank loans (wink wink), and then the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank if needed. Will be interesting who puts the cash into these Gov bonds that will be out of sight and probably scrutiny for a long time.  

[holy cow cm]

This actually will be the icing on the cake as they already recently just passed a bill that extremely limits or does not allow talk, discussion or postings about most all government matters and activities of any nature they deem fit unless they themselves release it. Meaning sort of an immunity from being subject to scrutiny or back lash from the public for any of their doings related to everything. 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand's parliament on Wednesday started debating a bill to allow the government to borrow an additional 500 billion baht ($16 billion) to help the tourism-reliant country deal with its latest and biggest coronavirus outbreak so far.

Can I borrow... it's all they know.

[Isaan sailor]

OK, so Thailand has some problems with the most recent virus outbreak—I get that.  But can someone please explain why the Baht rises yet again vs western currencies?  What makes Thailand so attractive to foreign inflows now?

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

OK, so Thailand has some problems with the most recent virus outbreak—I get that.  But can someone please explain why the Baht rises yet again vs western currencies?  What makes Thailand so attractive to foreign inflows now?

Which currencies... it has been losing ground against Sterling steadily for 6 months and the important one, US$, for the last 3 months.

[Venom]

Debate..????