BoT: Economic crisis not too severe
- Published: 25/03/2009 at 02:30 PM
- Online news: Breakingnews
Bank of Thailand (BoT) governor Tarisa Watanagase said the damage to the country's economy this year will not be as serious as predicted.
The central bank, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, would revise the gross domestic product (GDP) growth more frequently this year due to the continual economic changes, she said on Wednesday.
Thailand would likely encounter substantial challenges during the remaining months of 2009, but
they would be less severe than initially forecast.
"The BoT forecast that GDP growth in 2009 will range from zero to two per cent, but more revisions will have to be made as other economic figures are changing frequently," said Mrs Tarisa.
The BoT's Monetary Policy Committee could continue using monetary policy to handle the economy if necessary. But because of monetary policy restrictions, a financial policy must be implemented as well.
"Many countries are running budget deficits, but the government is stable enough to apply a financial policy,''' the central bank governor said. ''It should produce concrete results in the second half of the year."
Mrs Tarisa said she believed the United States economy had yet to hit rock bottom, even though some of its economic figures had started to look positive. The figures might not be constant next month.
She also expected the Thai economy to recover quicker and stronger, should the world economy begin to improve because the country had no problems with bad debts as well as debts from the household and business sectors.
On the future value of US dollar, she said the BoT had diversified the risks, and believed many countries invested in the currency and they would help support its value.
However, she predicted the dollar would devalue in the long run.
About the author
- Writer: BangkokPost.com
