Ministry of Finance orders two Special Financial Institutions to issue loans to lowincome people. The ministry has told GSB and BAAC to issue loans for low income Thais as the BoT’s new restrictions on personal and credit card loans may force them to go to loan sharks. (Khao Sod, 18/9/17)
Cabinet approves B87bn to help rice farmers. The cabinet on Tuesday approved three loan and subsidy programmes for rice farmers, to help stabilise prices and reduce oversupply of the grain. The three programmes are worth a total of 87 billion baht and include 73 billion baht for loans and subsidies for rice farmers already approved by the rice management committee earlier this month. The 73 billion baht spending programme will cover 3.7 million households and span the seasonal harvest from the start of November this year to the end of February 2018. (Bangkok Post, 20/9/17)
Health cover tax giveback sanctioned. The cabinet yesterday approved an additional tax break on premiums paid for health insurance, letting taxpayers claim a deduction of up to 15,000 baht for premiums paid to health insurance provided by life and non-life insurers. (Bangkok Post, 20/9/17)
Thailand approves law to speed up $45-billion development plan. Thailand’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a measure to accelerate a $45-billion plan to develop the industrial east and attract foreign investors, as the ruling junta seeks to boost long-term economic growth, a government official said. The junta hopes the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development plan, worth 1.5 trillion baht ($45.36 billion), will lift growth to about 5 percent a year by 2020, from a projected figure of 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent this year. (CNBC, 20/9/17)
Auto exports rise in August, outlook rosy. The country’s automotive exports increased for the first time in 14 months in August as the recovering global economy helped spur demand, says the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI). Yesterday the FTI’s automotive industry club reported car exports in August increased by 9.26% to 102,907 units thanks to better demand in every region except the Middle East and Africa. August export value for automobiles increased by 6.19% to 54.2 billion baht. (Bangkok Post, 21/9/17)
NLA approved new land tax policy. The NLA yesterday approved tax exempt on property worth less than Bt20mn. This need to be approved by NLA in the third step. It will be implemented in 2019 onwards. (Khao Sod, 20/9/17)
Welfare cards for low-income people in 7 provinces to be postponed. Ministry of Finance said that the 1.3mn who registered for low-income welfare cards in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathumthani, Ayutthaya, Samutprakarn, Nakornpathom, and Samutsakorn will have a delay in getting their cards due to some issues with the system. (Thai Rath, 21/9/17)
Bank of England’s Carney sees Brexit pushing up inflation, slowing growth. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Monday that Brexit is likely to hurt Britain’s growth prospects in the short term and push up inflation as the country adjusts to life outside the European Union. In a speech that immediately drew criticism from some Brexit supporters who have previously criticized his stance on the EU, Carney warned that Britain would face a cost for reworking its trade relationships. (Reuters, 19/6/17) Eurozone inflation sticks at 1.5%, but ECB eyes a pullback. The annual rate of inflation in the euro area was confirmed at 1.5 per cent by Eurostat earlier. But the European Central Bank warns not to get too used to the pace of price rises. (FT, 19/9/17)
Fed approves October reversal of historic stimulus, leaves rates unchanged. The Federal Reserve took the first tentative steps Wednesday to unwind its history-making economic stimulus. As markets expected, the U.S. central bank announced it will begin to roll off its $4.5 trillion balance sheet in October. Most of those assets consist of the Treasuries and mortgagebacked securities it acquired under a program known as quantitative easing. (CNBC, 21/9/17)
BOJ keeps policy steady, newcomer to board dissents. The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday and maintained its upbeat view of the economy, signalling its conviction that a solid recovery will gradually accelerate inflation towards its 2 percent target without additional stimulus. But new board member Goushi Kataoka dissented to the BOJ’s decision to maintain its interest rate targets, saying current monetary policy was insufficient to push inflation up to 2 percent during fiscal 2019. (CNBC, 22/9/17)
