Moody's maintains Thailand's credit rating at Baa1

BANGKOK, July 13 (TNA) - US-based Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has maintained Thailand's credit rating at Baa1, a stable status, thanks to the country's strong fiscal fundamentals and low external risks. According to Moody's latest report, published on July 13, Thailand, thus, has no problem in seeking financial sources, witnessed by the government's low-level debt burden and limited risks in debt repayment, resulting in its proactive and reliable financial and debt management. Besides, Thailand's many fiscal indicators have remained strong, compared to other countries with the same credit rating status, although the country's relaxing fiscal policy has somewhat raised the level of public debt. The Moody's report said that Thailand's current account status has been cushioned by a slowdown in domestic market demand and a drop in the prices of imported commodity products, noting that the considerably-increased surplus in the country's current account has become a national buffer against fluctuating flows of investment funds, while rising public spending and the number of international tourist arrivals in the Thai Kingdom have partly boosted the national economic growth amid a slowdown in external market demand and weakening activities of the private sector. Moody's acknowledged that Thailand's service exports have also remained strong, particularly boosted by a high number of Chinese tourist arrivals and those from other countries even though a fall in Thai exports, in line with a slowdown in the overall economic growth in Asia and the Pacific, has affected the national economic expansion. Moody's, meanwhile, forecast that Thailand's economic growth rates should stand at 2.8 per cent year-on-year in 2016 and 3 per cent year-on-year in 2017, caused by the country's reduced competitiveness and uncertainty in domestic politics related to the Constitutional reform and an unfixed timeframe of the next general election that has affected confidence in the national economy among business operators and consumers. (TNA)