Preventing recession early, Southeast Asia's leading economy considers a series of stimulus and acceleration solutions

The Thai government is considering early implementation of measures to address public debt and support the agricultural sector.

To prevent recession early, Southeast Asia's leading economy is considering a series of stimulus and acceleration solutions. (Source: Getty Images)

Speaking to reporters on July 12, Thai Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the weekly economic cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Monday will consider support measures, including reducing household debt, scheduled for July 15.

Mr. Lulapun said the government is looking at sectors, including real estate and various mechanisms to provide support with measures to help each group.

The public support measures to be considered by the cabinet next week include 100 billion baht in soft loans to be distributed by the Government Savings Bank, a Finance Ministry source said, requesting anonymity. The loans have been postponed to seek comments from relevant agencies.

Previously, the government has implemented a number of economic stimulus measures, such as in the real estate sector, reducing transfer fees from 2% to 0.01% and reducing mortgage fees from 1% to 0.01%.

There is also a three-year corporate income tax exemption for developers building homes costing less than 1.5 million baht and loans from the Government Housing Bank. Since the cabinet approved these measures in April, 65 billion baht has been injected into the economy.

Furthermore, the cabinet previously approved a fertilizer co-payment project to support farmers by subsidizing fertilizer costs at 500 Baht per Rai (0.16 ha) and up to 20 Rai (3.2 ha)/farmer for the 2024-2025 production season.

Thailand currently has about 4 million farming households and the above fertilizer cost support project costs the budget nearly 30 billion Baht.

On July 11, a survey conducted by UTCC University showed that consumer confidence in Thailand fell for the fourth consecutive month in June 2024 to its lowest level since September 2023, due to concerns about economic recession and political instability.

The UTCC consumer price index fell to 58.9 in June from 60.5 in May, the university said in a statement. The survey showed a majority of Thai consumers felt the economy was slowing or recovering slowly due to the lack of clear stimulus measures.

Meanwhile, a number of lawsuits being handled by the Thai Constitutional Court are also affecting domestic consumer sentiment regarding the unstable political situation.

Consumer confidence could improve if the government speeds up budget disbursement and stimulates the economy to recover quickly later this year, UTCC said.

In the first quarter of this year, Southeast Asia's second-largest economy grew only 1.5%, lower than the 1.7% increase in the previous quarter.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/ngan-chan-suy-thoai-tu-som-nen-kinh-te-hang-dau-dong-nam-a-can-nhac-loat-giai-phap-kich-stimulation-va-tang-toc-278568.html