Thailand's Veerathai May Hold Key Rate as Junta Adds to Stimulus
by Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Lee J Miller

- Veerathai's scope limited with borrowing costs near record low
- World Bank sees Thai economy expanding less than 3% until 2017

BANGKOK: -- Steady as she goes. That’s what’s expected of Thailand’s monetary policy under newly-installed central bank Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob, who has limited firepower to spur growth because borrowing costs are already close to a record low.

Veerathai will probably hold the benchmark interest rate at 1.5 percent in his first meeting as governor Wednesday, according to 22 of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. One predicted a reduction to 1.25 percent, matching a 2010 low.

Veerathai, a former International Monetary Fund economist who took office in October, has signaled monetary policy will act as a support, but government spending and investment will drive the recovery. The governor sits on the bank’s seven-member rate-setting committee, which voted to cut the rate twice earlier this year.

Full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-04/thailand-s-veerathai-may-hold-key-rate-as-junta-adds-to-stimulus

-- BloombergBusiness 2015-11-04

it won't make a blind bit of difference in Thailand. After all the money Japan has pumped into its system they acknowledged last week that Abenomics is a complete failure

when will people understand the consumer is tapped out and is up to its neck in debt

Edited November 4, 201510 yr by Asiantravel

"Veerathai will probably hold the benchmark interest rate at 1.5 percent in his first meeting as governor Wednesday"

That's just to show solidarity with the Junta for the bank's first meeting with Veerathai. But in December expect a rate cut to 1.25%. Capital is drying up faster than wet linens on the clothesline in a sunny afternoon in Bangkok. Foreign capital is either fleeing Thailand or finding better investment havens with lower risk returns.