BOT:Thailand's economic fundamentals are strong

BANGKOK, October 11 (TNA) - The Bank of Thailand (BOT) says that the country's economic fundamentals are now strong, if compared with those in 1997 when the Thai economy faced an acute economic crisis, but there are remaining external risk factors which may affect global economies, including Thailand. BOT Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob told journalists of the constructive development of the Thai economy on Wednesday, acknowledging that the BOT's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has, thus, adjusted upward the central bank's projection of the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate this year to 3.8 per cent year-on-year on average, from its earlier forecast of 3.5 per cent year-on-year. Veerathai pointed out that expanding Thai exports and domestic tourism have become major forces driving the national economy more widely, prompting more imports as well, especially those of raw materials used for the production of exported goods. Veerathai noted that Thailand's foreign exchange reserves now also stand high, at 3.5 times of the country's short-term external debts, while the current account experiences a surplus of 9 per cent of the country's GDP. Besides, the Thai baht now becomes more stable, thanks to the country's floating currency policy that has made the Thai currency more flexible against risk factors, while foreign holders of the Thai government's bonds have declined to 9-10 per cent. The BOT governor, thus, stressed that there are no signs of Thailand being at risk of encountering any fresh economic crisis. The central bank governor cautioned, however, that external risk factors remain for the Thai economy through a, probably, surge of world oil prices, namely a change in financial and monetary policies of major industrial countries, including the United States, European nations and Japan, and the current tension in the Korean Peninsula, as well as problems between the United States and Russia and in the Middle East. The BOT governor pledged, meanwhile, that the central bank will continue taking good care of the national economy through its careful management of the risk factors in order to ease their negative impacts on the expanding Thai economy. (TNA)