Private sector calls for stimulus

Private sector calls for stimulus

Predee Daochai, chairman of the Thai Bankers Association (photo supplied)
Predee Daochai, chairman of the Thai Bankers Association (photo supplied)

The private sector wants the new government to introduce economic stimulus packages to support economic expansion in the remainder of the year as growth slows.

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) will ask the new government to launch an economic stimulus package -- especially tax incentives -- to encourage domestic spending, Predee Daochai, chairman of the Thai Bankers Association (TBA), said after the JSCCIB meeting on Wednesday.

Tax measures to boost spending and the property sector could support domestic consumption and the Thai economy in the remainder of the year, he said. Because disbursement of the 2020 fiscal budget will be delayed by the process of forming the new government, an urgent economic stimulus is necessary, he added.

"Tax measures to encourage domestic spending are needed to support the Thai economy amid external uncertainties, particularly the US-Sino trade spat. Such economic measures could be useful, as they were in the past," he said.

The country's economic growth this year is being constricted by the escalating trade war between the US and China. Given negative external factors, Thai exports contracted 1.9% year on year in the first four months of the year, compared with a growth rate of above 6% in the same period of last year.

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