Showing 1 - 10 of 31
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.
Developing nations face solvency crisis
Oped, Anne O. Krueger, Published on 08/01/2025
» High debt levels are again setting off alarm bells worldwide. In developed countries, attention is focused on the rapid increase in public debt, while developing economies are struggling to service their external obligations amid slowing growth and stagnating exports.
Moving towards a fifth world order
Oped, Gordon Brown & Mohamed A El-Erian, Published on 26/10/2024
» The Bretton Woods institutions -- the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank -- are now 80 years old. But they are as under-resourced and poorly supported by national governments as at any time in their history. Their predicament is perhaps the clearest sign that economic and financial multilateralism is fragmenting along with the global economy. Worse, this fragmentation comes at a time of rising international tensions, financial fragility, sputtering growth, rising poverty, and mounting reconstruction bills in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
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!
Follow the science
Oped, Postbag, Published on 06/02/2024
» Re: "Don't fault African nations for producing more oil", (Opinion, Feb 2).
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.
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.
Bad to good: What kind of year was 2023 for Asia?
Oped, Curtis S Chin & Jose B Collazo, Published on 28/12/2023
» As 2023 departs, and 2024 -- and soon, the lunar Year of the Dragon -- arrives, we once again highlight the winners and losers of the year gone by in Asia.
Sway of video games
Oped, Postbag, Published on 28/10/2023
» The Siam Paragon shooting a few weeks ago has largely been put into the background now, what with all the Thais stranded in the Middle East and other problems in the world.