Thailand's central bank chief, under fire from the prime minister for not cutting rates, said slower-than-expected economic growth was not a crisis as portrayed by the government, nor would it be revived by its quick-hit stimulus measures, Reuters reported. The Bank of Thailand's current policy rate is broadly neutral, Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput told Reuters on Tuesday ahead of the central bank's next rate meeting on Feb. 7, adding that the country was not facing a deflationary situation.
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Major Japanese auto manufacturers will invest 150 billion baht ($4.34 billion) in Thailand over the next five years, a Thai government spokesperson said on Monday, supporting the Southeast Asian country's transition to making electric vehicles, Reuters reported. Toyota Motor and Honda Motor will invest about 50 billion baht each, while Isuzu Motors will invest 30 billion baht and Mitsubishi Motors 20 billion baht, spokesperson Chai Wacharoke said, adding this would include the production of electric pickup trucks. Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin concluded a trip to Japan last week.
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Binance Holdings Ltd.’s attempt to turn the page on costly regulatory violations faces a test in Thailand, where the world’s largest crypto exchange will soon start a new trading venue with one of Asia’s richest men, Bloomberg News reported. The venture with Sarath Ratanavadi’s Gulf Energy Development Pcl recently received the required licenses, but Binance’s guilty plea last week and $4.3 billion in penalties for US anti-money laundering and sanctions contraventions have cast a shadow over the planned domestic digital-asset platform.
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Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin defended a controversial plan to borrow billions of dollars to fund a cash handout program, saying Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy is in a crisis and needed a stimulus to end a cycle of low single-digit growth, Bloomberg News reported. Srettha’s administration last week unveiled plans to distribute 10,000 baht ($277) each to about 50 million Thais as a one-time measure to stimulate consumption and spur business activities.
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JKN Global Group Pcl, a Thai media company that owns the Miss Universe beauty-pageant brand, has petitioned for debt rehabilitation as it seeks to solve a liquidity crunch, Bloomberg News reported. JKN submitted the business rehabilitation request with Thailand’s Central Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, it said in an exchange filing. The company petitioned to adjust interest rates on existing debt and extend its debt repayment period, and proposed itself as a planner for the process.
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Thailand's second-biggest lender Kasikornbank is in talks to buy consumer finance provider Home Credit Vietnam in a deal of up to $1 billion that would further its push to expand in Vietnam, Reuters reported. The Bangkok-based lender, also called KBank, hopes to become one of Vietnam's top 20 banks in terms of assets by 2027. It has total assets worth $119.7 billion, second only to Bangkok Bank in Thailand, Refinitiv data showed.
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Thai AirAsia X has announced that it will be putting its rehabilitation plan into place by the end of next month, Simple Flying reported. The Chief Executive Officer of Thai AirAsia, Tassapon Bijleveld, has said that negotiations with various creditors are ongoing but should be completed by mid-April. He hopes that if the negotiations are completed soon, then the airline can begin refunding and compensating passengers towards the end of this year. Thai AirAsia suspended operations two separate times, once in early 2020 and again in 2021.
Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday agreed to waive corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue digital tokens for investment, a government spokeswoman said, Reuters reported. Companies will have access to alternative ways of raising capital through investment tokens in addition to traditional methods like debentures, Rachada Dhnadirek told reporters at a news conference.
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The absence of Chinese visitors devastated Thailand, where officials say tourism accounted for a fifth of gross domestic product in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported. About a quarter of arrivals that year came from China, bringing in 40% of international tourism revenue. By the time Thailand reopened its borders in October 2021, many businesses that relied wholly on the Chinese market had collapsed. China’s strict zero-Covid policy kept its citizens from traveling abroad until rules were eased in January, raising hopes for a surge of pent-up demand.
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Thai Airways International PCL said it expects to name a new permanent CEO as early as January 2023 as it proceeds with a pandemic-driven restructuring plan, the airline's acting chief executive said on Friday, Reuters reported. The new chief executive will take over as the airline undergoes a bankruptcy protected debt restructuring and has shed around half of its workforce and aircraft fleet. "There were nearly 50 applicants," acting CEO Suvadhana Sibunruang told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry gathering in Bangkok, saying a decision would be made early next year.