Thai PM, economic ministers discuss economic issues

BANGKOK, January 3 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday held a meeting with economic ministers and other relevant agencies on the global and the domestic economic situation, as well as impacts from Thailand's new daily minimum wage hike, to 300-baht equally across the country, effective from January 1, 2013. The meeting, held at Bangkok's Government House and also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong, was organised after the US Congress approved the so-called "fiscal cliff" emergency deal on Wednesday to avert a feared financial crisis in the United States in 2013. The participants assessed that Thai exports should become rosy, after the US fiscal cliff received the green light from the Capitol Hill, and also discussed possible negative impacts from the 300-baht daily minimum wage. The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) warned, meanwhile, that some 5-10 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the Kingdom would be closed by the second quarter of this year, as they could not shoulder rising costs, while several others would relocate their plants to neighbouring Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. (TNA)