Thai government urged to speed up public spending

BANGKOK, August 8 (TNA) - The Thai government has been urged to accelerate its spending on public projects to boost domestic consumption and people's purchasing power. Thanawat Phonvichai, Director of the Center for Economic and Business Forecasting of Bangkok-based University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), said that the government's quickly spending on public projects concretely, including those on investing in mega-infrastructure plans, as well as implementing economic stimulus measures from the grassroots would increase the purchasing power of people and their confidence in the Thai economy. Thanawat revealed that his center has maintained its projection of Thailand's economic growth this year at 3.6 per cent year-on-year on average, thanks to positive prospect of Thai exports. According to the senior economist, the current floods in about 10 Thai provinces could reduce the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 0.03-0.05 per cent or more than 9.57 billion baht. The senior economist also noted that Thailand's consumer confidence index last month stood at 73.9, the lowest level in seven months and a further drop in its consecutive months due to people's concerns over impacts from current floods in the Thai Northeast and North and low levels of farm produce prices, including those of rice, rubber, tapioca, corn, oil palm and pineapples, amid their rising costs of living in line with increasing retail fuel prices and labor problems incurred from the new executive decree on the management of migrant workers. (TNA)