• OPINION

  When honesty really is the best policy

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 24/10/2019

  » The International Monetary Fund (IMF), my alma mater, appointed a new chief on Oct 1. The new Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, suddenly changes the "everything is okay" view on the world economy to "the world is about to collapse".

• OPINION

  Take economic data with a grain of salt

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 07/11/2019

  » Originally, I planned to write an article titled "Albert Einstein and baht exchange rate". Then I said to myself, "Nope, let's not write another serious article this week". So, I decided to go for a lighter one about international rankings and ratings which the government often cites to reiterate that the Thai economy is in good shape. I never have understood why governments like to do this. Nobody cares about these figures. They care about their businesses, their jobs and their debts.

• OPINION

  Time to bring the baht to heel for sake of economy

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 22/11/2019

  » Complaints about the strong baht are growing louder by the month. Many are puzzled at why Thailand's currency keeps appreciating despite a weakening economy and falling exports. At the beginning of the year, the US dollar/baht rate was at 32.33. As of Wednesday, the baht had strengthened to 30.18 per dollar.

• OPINION

  The vicious economic cycle has begun

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 05/12/2019

  » Do not be surprised to see the government constantly coming out with economic good news such as its claims there are more factories opening than closing and more jobs being created. Or that the government is confident the bottom has been reached and a brighter economic outlook is set for next year. It is their job to create hope, while it is also my job to give readers the real economic picture. These pieces of information are accurate but, unfortunately, their stories do not go along with the real numbers. And remember, numbers never lie.

• OPINION

  Stagflation is now a reality for Thailand

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 19/12/2019

  » I first encountered this word, a combination of "stagnation" and "inflation", in an economics textbook. Stagflation depicts an unusual situation whereby an economy experiences both a slowdown and high inflation at the same time. A textbook example is the US economy of the early 1970s, which suffered 9% unemployment along with 12% inflation. The culprit was a doubling of world oil prices which pushed the US economy into a recession and raised the cost of goods and services.

• OPINION

  New Year economic wishfulness

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 02/01/2020

  » 'Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could." Of course, many will recognise these song lyrics from the motion picture The Sound of Music. But this phrase actually dates back to ancient Greece and the time of Aristotle. It is a foundation of all science: nothing can be created out of nothing. Economic science also follows this principle strictly. For a better economy, we first need a better economic environment. Thus, for a better economy this year, we need a better economic environment than in 2019. Will that be the case for Thailand?

• OPINION

  Bank of Thailand lands in hot water

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 16/01/2020

  » It caught almost everyone by surprise when the baht strengthened past the psychological level of 30 baht per US dollar during the New Year holidays.

• OPINION

  Virus outbreak comes at the worst time

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 30/01/2020

  » The coronavirus outbreak is not the first time the world has experienced an infectious disease at pandemic level. The first well-documented pandemic was the Plague of Justinian that struck in the 6th Century. The plague killed 25-50 million people which was a lot given the population then.

• OPINION

  Coronavirus economic blow will be long-lasting

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 13/02/2020

  » Even though the coronavirus outbreak isn't over yet, economists are already counting the damage. Research houses estimate that China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of this year could be less than 4% -- a sharp drop from the usual 6%-plus growth rate. Of course, the economic impact won't be limited to China, as its GDP represents more than 20% of the world economy.

• OPINION

  Can economy weather Covid-19 storm?

  News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 27/02/2020

  » As of Wednesday, there were 80,991 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus known as Covid-19, spread across 41 countries and territories. But explaining health issues is not the purpose of this article. I will leave that to medical and infection experts. The purpose here is to determine the economic impacts of the spread of Covid-19, particularly on the Thai economy.

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