Showing 1 - 10 of 27
Thailand must manage debt to progress
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 22/01/2026
» This article may be read as a continuation of my previous piece, Year of the Debt. That article focused mainly on household debt, which has already risen beyond the ability of Thai consumers to repay.
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.
Thailand has lost its last growth engine
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 29/05/2025
» Thailand has lost its last engine of growth and people are abandoning hope for a decent life.
Household debt plan has many flaws
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 28/11/2024
» It is unanimously agreed that household debt is one of the major economic problems of Thailand. Non-performing loans (NPL) from household debt amount to 1.2 trillion baht according to the National Credit Bureau (NCB). If it includes Special Mentioned (SM) debt (31-90 days of default), the bad debt level would rise to 1.7 trillion baht, or about 12.3% of total household debt outstanding.
Digital wallet tokens could hit scheme
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 08/08/2024
» I bet the government never thought of this when they thought of the Digital Wallet scheme. It probably does not make sense to it that there could be millions of people shunning pseudo money, namely Digital Wallet Tokens (DWTs). Perhaps, in the government's mind, a DWT is almost on a par with genuine money -- fiat money.
BoT is absolutely right in holding rates
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 22/02/2024
» The whole country -- the government, its economic agencies, private economic research houses, the private sector, and academics -- is accusing the Bank of Thailand (BoT) of being stubborn for refusing to lower interest rates to support the weak economy, aka, the economy in crisis.
Soft or hard landing for Thai economy?
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 08/02/2024
» Personally, I am sure the Thai economy will crash this year. I can even estimate the time when the crash will start. It is likely to be the month of May as several big economic bombs will explode that month. Confirmation of this belief came in December 2023's economic data. The most disturbing part is industry's capacity utilisation rate of 56.2% (seasonally adjusted), which is the second lowest in the world. The world's lowest is Nigeria!
Financial crisis looms over Thailand
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 25/01/2024
» The definition of an "economic crisis" is much debated in Thailand. This is because one of the requirements for enacting the emergency fiscal borrowing decree is that the economy must be in crisis.
Will foreign investors still be wooed?
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 28/12/2023
» This is my last article for 2023. Appropriately, I should write about the 2024 economic outlook but I have decided to postpone that to be the first article of 2024 as the analysis might be too unpleasant to digest right now. However, I will leave a "teaser" for readers to ponder over during the long holidays. As such, I am left with two choices: an article about informal debt -- I estimate outstanding debt to be over 400 billion baht and that it could have strong ties with grey money -- or an article about Thailand's ability to attract foreign investors, as our Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin travels all over the world to attract them. In the end, I opted for the latter.
When times get tough, Thais party
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 07/09/2023
» Today's article is far from being sarcastic towards or mocking Thais. On the contrary, it explains the current weakness of the economy and, more importantly, the serious implications for the effectiveness of the government's economic stimulus packages. So, this article is recommended reading for the new economic team.