Thaksin Planning Big Spend Spree

[pautai]

BOT chief says foreign reserves are safe

Published on February 11, 2005

Bank of Thailand Governor MR Pridiyathorn Devakula yesterday emerged to calm jittery nerves in the financial market by stressing it was against the law to spend money from the country’s international reserves.

His statement was in response to news reports quoting Pansak Vinyaratn – Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s chief policy strategist – suggesting it would better serve the country if some of the “idle” international reserves were productively invested.

“I called Pansak at 9.00 to ask about the reports. He told me he did not say we should spend money from the international reserves. It was a misunderstanding. Pansak said Thailand’s reserves are very strong and more than we actually need,” said Pridiyathorn.

Pansak said during an interview on Wednesday that the central bank’s international reserves of US$49 billion (Bt1.9 trillion) were too much, that the appropriate level was $32 billion.

Thailand’s international reserves are chiefly in hard currencies – dollars, euros and yen. The reserves are crucial to backing Thai currency in circulation.

The Thaksin II government plans to spend Bt2 trillion over the next four years on mega-infrastructure projects.

Somchai Jitsuchon, an economist at the Thailand Development Research Institute, said he believed the government

should not use official reserves

to finance government projects.

Reserves do not sit idle and are not owned by a few people in the market, said Somchai. As an example, he cited exporters and importers dealing in foreign exchange for their businesses, resulting in dollars flowing in and out of official reserves.

He said that government use of reserves ran counter to sound monetary and fiscal policy and could even affect confidence in macro-economic management.

Anoma Srisukkasem, Wichit Chaitrong

The Nation

[penzman]

Here's some crazy spending ideas for Mr T.

- Send a team of Thai astronauts to the moon using a Shincorp rocket, with a big RESCUE sticker on each side of it. The mission would include engraving Mr T's (Moonface) face on the whole surface of the bright side of the moon.

- All parking lot attendants will be handed solid gold whistles.

- From now on, each and every Thai chicken will have a mandatory health form and report to fill. 542 000 chicken to Thai translators will be trained for the job.

-All government owned pc's will be upgraded to the latest OS version as they include more card games.

-A buffalo for every Bangkokian.

- From 7 pm to 4 am, water tratment plants will feed out beer Chang, Johnny Walker Red on special occasions.

[chingy_]

i just don't see where all the income coming from.

[HumbleFlyer]

That is a no brainer......50 Baht from every bar fine in the entire county add up fast

!

[The_Moog]

Its saying sensible things like this will get Pridyathorn fired -

Of course he's right - if you spend the international reserves on buying Liverpool FC, what defends the currency next time George Soros shorts the Baht.