The Thai economy may already be recovering and if so, the country will be out of the recession in a few short months. The finance minister sees the economy recovering in 2Q. – Q on Q, we will see a positive growth, said Korn Chatikavanij on Thursday.
The Thai government is busy preparing to raise 800 billion baht to pay for its latest stimulus package. The cabinet approved a proposal this week to borrow the money to finance stimulus spending and fiscal deficits between now and 2011.
Khun Korn told Reuters the government had no immediate plans to raise funds via international dollar capital markets. He denied market speculation that the government would go to the International Monetary Fund to access extra funds.
According to Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase there is plenty of surplus capital in the Thai banking sector and that the market can market can absorb the additional borrowings by the government.
– There’s not much concern, we can raise the money domestically without impacting significantly on the yield curve, Khun Korn said at an investment seminar organized by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Singapore.
He expected Thailand’s economic contraction in the first quarter of 2009 was close to 6 percent from a year earlier.
The Thai foreign reserves were at 117 billion dollars on the 1st of May. This is an increase of 67 percent in two years.
For the first time since September is the business sentiment improving among Thai business leaders and the reading is similar to June of last year.
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