Showing 1 - 10 of 12
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.
Financing FY 2026 deficit will fall short
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 12/06/2025
» My message is short, loud and clear. There will not be enough money to finance FY 2026's 860 billion baht budget deficit. Without enough money, the budget will collapse and take the economy down with it. The government is learning the bitter lesson of drying up finance sources now, but budget financing will be in crisis in the 2026 fiscal year.
Stimulus packages need paradigm shift
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 03/10/2024
» Ever wonder why Thailand's economic growth is consistently lower than its peers? Even with a flood of foreign tourists of 28.1 million (154.4% growth) in 2023, our GDP growth was 1.9% compared to 5.5% in the Philippines, 5% in both Indonesia and Vietnam, and 3.7% in Malaysia. The growth figure for the first half of this year of 1.9% is far worse than many of our Asean friends.
Digital wallet scheme hits another snag
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 13/06/2024
» The new financing problem of the 10,000-baht cash handout, commonly known as the Digital Wallet Scheme (DW), has not made much noise in the media. This may be because the government wants this to be a non-issue, but in reality, it is a serious one that could wreck the entire scheme.
Reviving Thai economy is a tall order
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 27/07/2023
» By the time readers read this article, Thailand still does not have a real government. But judging from the game being played, it is not too hard to guess which party will lead a new government.
Govt must spend this B500bn wisely
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 27/05/2021
» It is now official. An emergency decree authorising the Ministry of Finance to borrow money to solve the economic and social problems arising from the Covid-19 outbreak was published in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday. However, the authorised amount is 500 billion baht, not 700 billion baht as we had heard from various sources. The spending is divided into three categories: 30 billion baht for healthcare management; 300 billion baht for economic relief programmes, and 170 billion baht for economic recovery projects.
New surge a blow to weak economy
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 15/04/2021
» Today's article is "breaking news" as I am in the midst of writing a five-part series about the liquidity crisis risk facing the country. I have already published the first two parts of the series -- origins of the risk and experience from 1997 economic crisis. I still have three more articles to go. They are: (1) warning signs of the risk, (2) shielding oneself from the risk, and (3) appropriate macro-economic policy responses. I do not want to break the series because warning signs are getting stronger every day such as the alarming US$8.4 billion (263 billion baht) outflow in March and the 154 billion baht government cash deficit in February.
The job of a finance minister...
Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 03/09/2020
» The resignation of Finance Minister Predee Daochai is a hot issue right now and I feel compelled to write about it, though I'd rather not discuss the cause -- which could be a combination of problems relating to health, internal disputes, political pressure, workloads, and unsolvable problems. Whatever the problems are, the minister has already made the decision which is gazetted. What's done is done.
It's time to face grim Covid-19 reality
News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 07/05/2020
» At the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, there emerged an outbreak containment option called "Hurt and then ending" which in Thai is jeb tae jop. The complete lockdown of Wuhan was a prime example of that. In Thailand, the lockdown measure was first implemented in Buri Ram before it become a standard practice nationwide. The effectiveness of the measures varies across the globe -- from a seemingly complete success story in Wuhan to a not-yet sustained success in Spain, to a success and then failure in Singapore. I do not think anybody doubts the effectiveness of the lockdown on controlling the outbreak, but many, including myself, are starting to come out and question the cost of lockdown, which I have previously mentioned.
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.