Bangkok – The Bank of Thailand sees a positive trend in the economy thanks to several encouraging factors.
Speaking about the monetary policy report for September, the Bank of Thailand’s Assistant Governor in charge of the monetary policy group Jaturong Jantarangs, said the country’s economy edged up noticeably as a result of increased imports which heightened the demand for employees in export and tourism-related industries.
Jaturong commented that the distribution of government welfare cards would play a positive psychological role in the economy as it had stimulated public spending. However, the use of the cards is less influential in the economy than the 9101 project which will see funds of 20 billion baht injected into different communities in the third and fourth quarters and will push up the economic growth by 0.1 percent.
Though investment by the private sector is still progressing slowly, development projects by the public sector, including the implementation of the Eastern Economic Zone act, will help build up local and foreign investors’ confidence.
Factors that might impede the economic improvement are seen as the US trade policy, a slowdown in domestic consumption and the implementation of the Procurement and Supplies Management act that may delay government spending, along with the volatility of short term capital flows.
