Thai economy

[dazdaz]

I've noticed there has been little talk of the economic crash of 1997.  This is of course central to everything.

No economy, no work, no work, no visa.

This explains one of the major difficulty's in working in Thailand at present, and as far as i've read, is showing signs of recovery.

What do others think of the present situation and the potential future?

Cheers

[Rinrada]

It conjures up memories similar to questions like where you when President Kennedy was etc.and if your from the UK when Michael Portillo was defeated at Southgate,Enfield-1997 General Election (just round the corner from here-a bit)

As we all know the Thai baht was regulated for something like 25 years to the $US at a rate of @ $1=25.The poor old £ pound  on the other hand was over the same period up and down like the proverbial L.Ns personal "atire".I remember sometime in about 93-94 cashing a £100 T.C.(no ATMs in Bangers then)and recieving 33 Bt/£. :ghostface:

Times then were a little bit easier with a bottle of Sing/Kl at about 35-40 Bt in Beer bar but imported Hein/Karls if you could get it was 100 Bt plus at The Magic Castle Rock Bar in the Soi on the way to the old offices of VIDEOCHOICE.(Mail order)

!997 saw a crowd of us (real hotch potch)Teachers,Tourists,Local X-Pts and Mail order take-a aways sitting or rather drinking in the coffee shop of the Honey in Soi 19.Incid any news comments about it since I dont tend to stay there anymore.(my gaff -Teparak-Wifes house Sam.Prak.)

Anyway the baht had been falling and we had all agreed that the next day (Monday)would probabally be good to do an Xchange..I believe the old retired teacher(Phil-Bill-Will??)was up first thing and change £5000 at 97-Bt.A couple of days later it was down to 78-76-72 where it stayed for quite a while.Bangers was in Chaos--the rest as they say is history.

A new expression arose from the debris-N.P.L.-Non Performing Loans-What? Anyway I recon things are improving since according to World Bank figures the average income in LOS is about $1900 a year wheras in 1997 it was @ $2400.

Phut Cha-Cha-and Sanuk

As a foot note whatever you might think of Taskin (PM) the ordinary Thais seem to respect him and he appears to be in control and doing a good job.