Showing 1 - 10 of 16
Thailand now 'the sick man of Asean'
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 30/10/2025
» The inspiration for this article comes from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) report for the month of October.
1% GDP growth impacts will be severe
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 21/08/2025
» Where did I get the idea that GDP growth in the second half of 2025 would only be 1.0%? The answer is the government, as the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) told me so.
The economy is waiting to hit an iceberg
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 20/03/2025
» This is not a scene from the 1997 film Titanic. On the evening of April 14th 1912, a small Canadian fishing boat, skippered by a French-Canadian captain called "Jacques-Chai", approached the Titanic wanting to convey a very important message to Captain Edward Smith. The message was that there was a sea of icebergs, one was particularly big, about 200 miles ahead.
Rate cut helps the BoT, not the economy
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 06/03/2025
» On Feb 26, the Bank of Thailand's (BoT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) cut its policy interest rate by 0.25%, lowering it to 2.0%.
Will Thailand's economy cheat death?
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 23/01/2025
» 'He and the other survivors have briefly cheated death, but will not be able to evade their fate for very long." A movie buff will know this comes from Final Destination and the "he" in the quote refers to Alex Browing, the movie's main character.
Little cause for optimism in year ahead
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 09/01/2025
» One would expect the first article of the year to be about economic predictions. I will certainly do that but not in today's article. It will be in my next one. The reason being that my predictions will not be as positive as those of others.
Making sense of performance figures
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 31/10/2024
» I have the duty of reviewing quarterly economic performances and making economic growth projections for a private research firm.
BoT, govt may have wrong inflation data
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 17/10/2024
» At the time of writing (Tuesday), the Bank of Thailand's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had not met to decide on the policy interest rate which is currently set at 2.50%. The panel was scheduled to meet yesterday and the committee was under pressure to lower the rate by 25 basis points. The pressure arises from many months of low inflation rates and the recent strong Thai baht. Several central banks in the region have cut their policy interest rates for those two reasons. The latest one is the Bank of Korea.
Zombie banking deepens economic woes
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 19/09/2024
» This is the second of three articles, following the earlier article "Problems with Dr Thaksin's Visions". The series will end with an article titled "Call for a paradigm shift".
3.2% GDP growth 'pie in the sky'
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 11/01/2024
» This year must be my lucky year. One of the key points of this article is to underline the risk of financial crisis compared to 1997. But this time it would not come from bank failures, it would come from defaults on corporate bonds and commercial papers. The reasons are the low cash position of corporates from many years of weak economic performance and, most importantly, today's super-tight domestic liquidity to refinance matured bonds and papers. I am a little wary that readers may scorn such a bold opinion. However, out of the blue, my opinion was proven correct on Monday when Italian-Thai Development (ITD) announced the postponement of payments on its bonds due in 2024 to 2026 with a total value of 14.45 billion baht for two years.