BANGKOK, 4 June 2013 – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has instructed the Ministry of Finance to provide Thailand’s economic information for Moody’s before it downgrades the country’s credit rating.
Ms Yingluck on Tuesday said she had asked the Ministry of Finance to closely monitor Moody’s analysis and confirmed that the government was ready to provide the agency with complete information prior to the rating downgrade. Asked why the government did not clarify the rice pledging scheme’s loss of profit to the public, the premier said the loss was still unofficial, adding that she had not yet received the loss figures from the Ministry of Commerce.
Moody’s Investors Service is preparing to downgrade Thailand following huge losses incurred by the Thai government’s rice pledging scheme for the 2011-2012 crop years.
According to Ms Yingluck, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom has confirmed to Parliament that the rice pledging scheme did not make a loss of 260 billion baht as reports have claimed.
