Thailand

• MOF to announce Bt10bn saving bond – The Minister of Treasury Sommai Phasee said the Finance Ministry will announce the issue of a Bt10bn savings bond today. Bt5bn will be used to repay BAAC’s debt from the rice pledging program and Bt5bn will be used to finance the 2015 fiscal budget. (Khaosod, 2/1/15)
• Construction to reach a record high – The construction Institute of Thailand expects the government’s investment projects will push construction in Thailand to a record high of Bt1trn in 2015. (Khaosod, 3/1/15)
• Inflation at lowest in 62 months – Inflation in December hit the lowest level in 62 months and is likely to drop further over the next few months due largely to falling oil prices, signalling that the overall cost of living is on a downward trend on the back of cheaper logistics costs. (Bangkok Post, 6/1/15)
• Government budget deficit needed for fiscal 2016 – Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said today he would meet with Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula on preparations for the government’s FY2016 expenditures, beginning October 1, when the deficit will increase to more than the current fiscal year. He said the government needs to invest into several development projects and its expenditure for FY2016 will see a higher deficit than the current 2015 fiscal year. (MCOT News, 5/1/15)

• Bt100bn ‘Let’s Be Happy’ bonds launched – The Finance Ministry has launched Bt100bn bonds aimed at funding a budget deficit and refinancing debt incurred from the rice-pledging scheme of the previous government. (Bangkok Post, 6/1/15)
• Confidence at 18-month high – Consumer confidence bounced back to hit an 18-month high in December, buoyed by falling oil prices, the Monetary Policy Committee’s recent decision to maintain the policy interest rate and the government’s discount campaigns across the country during the New Year celebrations. (Bangkok Post, 8/1/15)
• Infrastructure spending key for 3.5-4.5%, growth: FPO – The Fiscal Policy Office of the Finance Ministry forecasts gross domestic product this year to grow by 3.5-4.5% thanks to the government’s infrastructure spending and recovery of the tourism industry. (The Nation, 8/1/15)
• Housing developers’ sentiment up slightly in Q4 – The Housing Developers’ Sentiment Index in the final quarter of 2014 recorded 55.4 points, up from 54.5 points in the third quarter, thanks to a recovery in the demand four residential purchases, according to a survey by the Real Estate Information Centre (REIC) of Government Housing Bank. (The Nation, 8/1/15)
• Govt seeks Bt900bn for water plan – The government has proposed a raft of new national water management projects and wants to boost investment to a massive Bt900bn under a 10-year plan. (Bangkok Post, 8/1/15)
• BoT unfazed by headline inflation figures – The Bank of Thailand is not concerned about headline inflation falling short of the target for this year, citing the increase in global oil supply as prompting oil prices to plummet. (The Nation, 9/1/15)
• Organic laws to speed up infrastructure projects – The government’s strategic public-private partnership plans are about to be finalised, with all regulations expected to be settled early next month. (Bangkok Post, 9/1/15)
• Lower fuel costs have little effect on consumer goods – The plunge in the cost of diesel fuel has had little downward impact on the retail prices of most goods, according to the Commerce Ministry’s Internal Trade Department. (The Nation, 9/1/15)

Globally

• U.S. Manufacturing activity cools in December – Economic activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector cooled in December of 2014 due to weak orders and production, an industry survey showed Friday. The manufacturing index, also known as the purchasing managers index (PMI), dropped 3.2 points from November’s reading to 55.5 in December, the slowest monthly growth pace in six months, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in a report. (Xinhua, 2/1/15)
• The final seasonally adjusted Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI fell from 54.8 in November to 53.9 in December, indicating the weakest improvement in overall manufacturing sector business conditions since January, according to the report. (Xinhua, 2/1/15)
• U.S. construction spending slipped 0.3% in November after a 1.2% rebound in October due to weak orders and production, short of market expectations of a 0.5% gain, said the Commerce Department. (Xinhua, 2/1/15)
• ECB likely to start large-scale quantitative easing early 2015 – ECB President Mario Draghi hinted in an interview with German Handelsblatt newspaper that the central bank was likely to start large-scale quantitative easing early 2015. “The risk that we do not fulfill our mandate of price stability is higher than six months ago,” Draghi said in the interview published on Friday, adding that there is unanimity in ECB’s governing council to “alter the size, speed and compositions of our measures at the start of 2015, should it become necessary to react to a too long period of low inflation.” (Xinhua, 2/1/15)
• Household loans extended by South Korean lenders increased sharply last year on the back of low borrowing costs, data showed on Sunday, stoking concerns that the country’s household debt could balloon further. (Yonhap News, 4/1/15)
  San Francisco Fed’s Williams Sees No ‘Rush’ to Tighten Monetary Policy – The Federal Reserve is in no rush to raise interest rates, and an initial rate increase coming in mid-2015 would be a “reasonable guess,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said Monday. (WSJ, 5/1/15)
• Eurozone sentiment recovers in January despite Greek risks – Sentiment in the eurozone improved in January for a third month running as investors and analysts shrugged off uncertainty over new Greek elections and their view of longer-term economic developments reached its most optimistic level in six months. (Reuters, 5/1/15)
• British construction PMI drops to 17-month low – British construction purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 57.6 in December 2014 from 59.4 in November, recording the lowest reading over the past 17 months, said Markit Economics Limited on Monday. (Xinhua, 5/1/15)
• Foreign direct investment in S. Korea hit new high of US$19bn– The FDI pledges, or pledge to make direct investment into the country, reached a fresh record US$19bn in 2014, up 30.6% from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The prior high was US$16.29bn tallied in 2012. (Xinhua, 5/1/15)
• U.S. private sector adds 241,000 jobs in December – The U.S. private sector added 241,000 jobs in December, better than market expectation, said a private survey released Wednesday. “December delivered another strong number well above 200,000 to close out a solid year of employment growth with over two and a half million jobs added,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and executive officer of Automatic Data Processing (ADP). (Xinhua, 8/1/15)
• U.S. trade deficit drops to 11-month low – The United States trade deficit fell in November to the lowest level in 11 months as crude oil imports dropped to a two-decade low. The trade deficit narrowed to US$39bn in November, down 7.7% from a revised October deficit of US$42.2bn, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. United States exports slipped 1% to US$196.4bn as sales of commercial airliners fell. (AP, 7/1/15)
• Euro zone inflation rate turns negative in Dec – The eurozone inflation rate turned negative for the first time since October 2009, as the annual rate is expected to be minus 0.2% in December 2014, down from 0.3% in November, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. (Xinhua, 8/1/15)
• Vietnam exports 7.5mn tons of rice in 2014 via official, cross-border trade – Vietnam exported some 7.5mn tons of rice in 2014 via both official and cross-border export transactions, said Vietnam Industry and Trade Center (VITIC) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on Tuesday. (Xinhua, 6/1/15)
• U.S. initial jobless claims decline – The number of Americans who initially applied for jobless benefits in the week ending Jan. 3 slipped 4, 000 to a seasonally adjusted 294,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. (Xinhua, 9/1/15)
• Eurozone retail trade up by 0.6% last November – The seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade in November rose by 0.6% in the eurozone and by 0.8% in the European Union (EU), the statistical office of the EU Eurostat said on Thursday. (Xinhua, 8/1/15)
• Eurozone industrial producer prices fall in November – Industrial producer prices of the eurozone fell by 0.3% in November 2014, compared with that of October 2014, the statistical office of the European Union Eurostat said on Thursday. (Xinhua, 8/1/15)
• Bank of England freezes ultra-low interest rate – The Bank of England (BoE), the central bank of Britain, Thursday voted to maintain the benchmark interest rate at 0.5%. The bank also voted to maintain the stock of purchased assets, or quantitative easing policy scheme, at £375bn (or US$560bn). It is the 70th successive month that interest rates stay at a historical low level. (Xinhua, 8/1/15)
• Taiwan mulls plan to open bourse to Chinese buyers – Taiwan may open up its stock market for the first time to individual Chinese investors later this year in a bid to attract more investments to its shrinking bourse. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said it was hoping to make a decision in June whether to go ahead with the plan. Currently mainland Chinese institutions are allowed to invest in Taiwan’s stock market, but individuals are not. (AFP, 8/1/15)