FILTER RESULTS
FILTER RESULTS
close.svg

Showing 1 - 10 of 151

Image-Content

OPINION

Risk of financial crisis creeps ever closer

Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 06/02/2025

» When I started writing this article last week, I said to myself: "This might be another article no one will believe." Financial crisis? You must be out of your mind. The situation seems to be under control and it is likely to improve in 2025. After all, the Ministry of Finance has projected GDP growth for this year to be 2.5% to 3.5%, with a base case of 3.0%. No crisis can happen under such healthy growth, surely.

Image-Content

OPINION

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.

Image-Content

OPINION

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.

Image-Content

OPINION

GDP figures don't reflect real situation

Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 26/12/2024

» This article is the last for 2024. I have made many bad predictions about the Thai economy throughout the year. Many became true, like the contracting credit market, the NPL explosion, and an ineffective cash handout programme. Many have not become true (or have they?). One was GDP growth. Instead of shrinking as I predicted, GDP growth rates improved from quarter to quarter. They were 1.6% for Q1, 2.2% for Q2, and 3.0% for Q3. And it is expected to be 3.5% for Q4 to fulfil the annual 2.6% growth projection.

Image-Content

OPINION

Data paints economy as 'black hole'

News, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 12/12/2024

» I am known for being pessimistic about the Thai economy. Apart from encouraging official economic growth figures of 1.6% in Q1, 2.2% in Q2, and 3.0% in Q3, I do not think anyone can be optimistic about the economy. It is obvious that GDP data and the actual economic situation do not go hand in hand. It is beyond my comprehension that the non-performing loan (NPL) level rose 14.1% in Q3 while the economy expanded 3.0%. Shouldn't it be the opposite when debtor's income rises?

Image-Content

OPINION

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.

Image-Content

OPINION

Trump tariffs spell trouble for Thailand

Oped, Chartchai Parasuk, Published on 14/11/2024

» Readers must have read a few articles or listened to numerous analyses of US President-elect Donald Trump's trade protectionism policy and its impact on the world economy, particularly China. But this could be the first genuinely economic-oriented analysis of Mr Trump's policy, emphasising issues relevant to Thailand. Readers could find that an economic approach would give new insights into this much talked about topic.

Image-Content

OPINION

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.

Image-Content

OPINION

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.

Image-Content

OPINION

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.