Thailand

• UTCC cuts GDP growth to 1.5-2% from 2.2-2.5%. It blames a lack of concrete investments and weak tourism. It said geopolitical conflict will also negatively affect GDP. (Krungtep Thurakij, 31/08/14)
• Thai exports to Europe hampered by failure to negotiate a new FTA agreement. GSP will likely be scrapped with Thailand losing competitive edge to Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. (Prachachart Thurakij, 01/09/14)
• Special economic zones (SEC) to be set up — The Ministry of Finance has okayed the proposal to set up special economic zones in five border towns in September, with plans to possibly continue BoI tax cut for another 2-3 years. (Kom Chud Luek, 01/09/14)

• Gen. Prayuth unveils four-pronged plan to boost SME contribution to GDP to 1% or Bt4.2trn. The government will support innovation into products, focus on exports, increase government spending on SME from 40% to 45% and allow small enterprises to grow to medium enterprises. (Krungtep Thurakij, 30/08/14)
• State firms to be key investors in mega-projects – State enterprises will be the key investors in the government’s Bt2.4trn infrastructure mega-projects between 2015 and 2022, according to the Public Debt Management Office’s bond-market adviser, Suwit Rojanavanich. (The Nation, 01/09/14)
• Govt to revise down export target – After many other agencies have issued low export expansion forecasts, the Commerce Ministry was finally convinced that it needs to downgrade its target for this year’s shipments soon. (The Nation, 04/09/14)
  Push to spend FY2015 budget — The Office of the Budget will push state enterprises and government offices to spend their allocations in the FY2015 budget. It says spending 96% of the budget will lift GDP growth to 4.5% next year. (Krungtep Thurakij, 04/09/14)
• Confidence at 13-month high – Consumer confidence rose for the fourth month to 80.1 in August, hitting a 13-month high, thanks to greater political stability and people’s increasing faith in the country’s economic recovery. (Bangkok Post, 05/09/14)
• BoT maintain its monetary policies and inflation target at 0.5-3%. Academics and economists say this year inflation is likely to be 2.3% due to the NCPO policies. They warn that raising cooking gas price would raise inflation. (Krungtep Thurakij, 05/09/14)
• BoT: Slow exports can be countered – Domestic consumption, private investment and fiscal budget disbursement could compensate for lacklustre export growth, says the Bank of Thailand. (Bangkok Post, 03/09/14)
• Rice MoU between Thailand and the Philippines — The NCPO has approved an MoU between Thailand and the Philippines for a G2G sale of 1mn tonnes of rice. (Thai Post, 03/09/14)

Globally

• U.S. consumer sentiment rises in August – The final reading of the consumer sentiment index in August increased to 82.5 from 81.8 in July, better than the market expectation of 80.1, according to the monthly Thomson Reuters/ University of Michigan survey of consumers. (Xinhua, 29/08/14)
• EU leaders to tackle economy in autumn amid significant concern — European Union (EU) leaders will address economic issues in the following months as the weak recovery of the EU economy has raised “significant” concerns. (Xinhua, 31/08/14)
• IMF approves massive funding for Ukraine – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday announced a disbursement of US$1.4bn to crisis-torn Ukraine, but warned that the program remains highly challenging and continues to hinge on the development of the conflict. (Xinhua, 30/08/14)
• India’s quarterly GDP up 5.75% — India’s economy grew at a better-than-expected 5.7% in the April-June quarter, the highest rate of growth in the past two-and-half years, according to data released Friday by the Central Statistics Office. (Xinhua, 31/08/14)
• US: U.S. factory orders in July rose 10.5%, largely in line with market expectations, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. U.S. mortgage applications increased 0.2% for the week ending August 29 from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Xinhua, 04/09/14)
• German Services PMI fell to 54.9 points in August, from 56.7 points in July, according to data released today by Markit. The result is below market consensus of 56.4 points. (FX Street, 03/09/14)
• US: Private payroll processor ADP revealed Thursday that U.S. private sector employment added 204,000 jobs in August, missing market expectations. Moreover, the number of Americans who initially applied for jobless benefits in the week ending Aug. 30 added 4,000 from the previous week to a seasonally adjusted 302,000, said the Labor Department. The U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services narrowed slightly to US$40.5bn in July from the revised US$40.8bn in June, reported the Commerce Department.
• U.S. non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index registered 59.6 in August, the highest since its inception in January 2008, according to the Institute for Supply Management.
• U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 2.3% annual rate in the second quarter, while unit labor costs in nonfarm businesses edged down 0.1% in the second quarter, the Labor Department reported Thursday. (Xinhua, 05/09/14)
  New stimulus for eurozone — The Eurosystem will purchase a broad portfolio of simple and transparent asset-backed securities (ABSs) and a broad portfolio of euro-denominated covered bonds issued by monetary financial institutions (MFIs) domiciled in the euro area under a new covered bond purchase program, according to ECB President Mario Draghi. (Xinhua, 04/08/14)
• ECB cuts interest rates by 10 basis points – The interest rates on the main refinancing operations, the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility of the Eurosystem will be decreased by 10 basis points to 0.05%, 0.3% and -0.2% respectively, starting from the operation to be settled on Sept. 10, 2014, said an ECB announcement. (Xinhua, 04/08/14)
• US: The U.S. manufacturing activity in August expanded at its strongest pace since April 2010, said financial data firm Markit. The final seasonally adjusted Markit U. S. manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) registered 57.9 in August, up from 55.8 in July, well above the neutral 50.0 value. In another report, the Institute for Supply Management said that U.S. economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in August for the 15th consecutive month, with its August PMI registering 59, up from 57.1 in July. The latest PMI data marked the highest reading since March 2011. Xinhua, 03/09/14)
• U.S. construction spending jumped 1.8% in July to an annual rate of US$981.3bn, the highest since December 2008, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The increase also beat market consensus. Xinhua, 03/09/14)
• Japan: Average monthly wage rises by over 2% for 1st time in decade – Average monthly pay for workers in Japan, including bonuses, rose 2.6% in July from a year earlier to ¥369,846, marking a rise of 2% or more for the first time in a decade, the labor ministry said Tuesday. But the index shows that in real terms, wages are still not keeping up with inflation. (Xinhua, 02/09/14)