BANGKOK, 21 June 2013 An academic has expressed concerns over Thailand’s political tensions in the second half of the year, fearing that controversies over reconciliation and amnesty bills will escalate and cause delays in the government’s investment projects.
An academic from Rangsit University, Mr Anusorn Thammachai, expected that the Thai economy in the latter half of 2013 would grow at 4.5-5.5%, decreasing from the previous forecast of 5.5-6.5%, due to both internal and external factors.
The internal factors include charter amendment as well as reconciliation and amnesty bills. The issues could lead to political uprising and even a coup, which would substantially affect the country’s economy and bring all investment projects of the government to a halt, especially the 2-trillion-baht infrastructure investment and the 350-billion-baht water management program, the academic said.
As for the external factors, Mr Anusorn suggested that special attention should be given to the Fed’s tapering of quantitative easing which could lead to currency speculation in the Thai money market.
