Revenue Department will propose sugar tax regulation to cabinet in August, to take effect on September 16. Producers will be given a two-year grace period. (Khao Hoon, 31/7/17)
Credit Card business association says three-lender system very damaging. The Credit Card Business Association said that the BoT’s policies to curb credit cards and personal loans will slash interest income in the whole system by 10%. (Khao Hoon, 31/7/17)
BoT: Consumption up, investment down in June. Private consumption rose slightly in June but private investment contracted from the previous month, central bank indexes showed on Monday, suggesting economic recovery remains patchy. The Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) private consumption index for June rose 0.2% from the previous month, when it increased 1.3%. The index for private investment declined 0.4% in June from May, when it had contracted 0.2%. The BOT said there was a current account surplus of $4.28 billion (142.4 billion baht) in June, after a $1.13 billion (37.6 billion baht) surplus in May. (Bangkok Post, 1/8/2017)
Thai July headline consumer prices up 0.17% y-o-y, less than forecast. Thai annual headline consumer prices, which slipped the two previous months, rose slightly in July, government data showed on Tuesday, which still leaves the central bank plenty of room to keep interest rates near record lows. Headline consumer prices rose 0.17 per cent in July from a year earlier, after a 0.05 per cent dip in June. A Reuters poll projected a rise of 0.21 per cent in July. (Business Time, 2/8/2017)
TRUE, TOT, ADVANC, and ITEL won 3920 village broadband internet. The NBTC will hold four more auctions for mobile services today. (Thun Hoon, 2/8/17)
Atlanta Fed estimates U.S. third-quarter GDP growing at 4.0 percent. The U.S. economy is on track to expand at a 4.0 percent annualized pace in the third quarter with inventory investment contributing 1.12 percentage points to growth, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed on Thursday. (Reuters, 4/8/2017)
US second quarter GDP meets expectations. U.S. gross domestic product increased 2.6 percent in the second quarter, meeting expectations. Last quarter’s growth rate came in at 1.4 percent. The economy grew at a 2.1 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2016. U.S. economic growth in 2015 was the best since 2005 but the momentum ebbed significantly in 2016, with the economy notching its weakest performance since the recession, according to revised government data published on Friday. (CNBC, 28/7/2017)
German inflation beats expectations, still short of ECB target. German consumer inflation was stronger than expected last month but remained well below the European Central Bank’s target for the euro zone of just under 2 percent, suggesting it and a robust Spanish reading are unlikely to hasten policy tightening. Federal Statistics Office data on Friday showed German consumer prices harmonised to compare with other European countries (HICP) rose by an annual 1.5 percent in July, the same as in June and above the 1.4 percent forecast in a Reuters poll. (Reuters, 28/7/2017)
China official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index is 51.4 for July, below expectations. China reported Monday that its official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for the month of July came in at 51.4 — just shy of expectations. Economists were expecting that PMI number to come in a 51.6 for July, just slightly slower from June’s 51.7 reading, according to a poll by Reuters. Levels above 50 indicate expansion, while levels below signal contraction. (CNBC, 31/7/2017)
EIA: US Crude, Gasoline, Diesel Stockpiles Fall. U.S. crude, gasoline and diesel inventories all fell in the latest week as gasoline demand hit a record high, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Aug. 2. Crude inventories fell by 1.5 million barrels (bbl) in the week to July 28, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 3 million bbl. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla., delivery hub fell by 39,000 bbl, the EIA said. (Reuters, 3/8/2017)
