Govt to speed up stimulus spending as growth stagnates

“I have confidence we can manage the country’s economy under the coalition government to boost its growth to 3.5 per cent, after the World Bank revised down [its forecast for] Thailand’s economic growth from 3.8 per cent to [instead] 3.5 per cent in this year,” Somkid said.
He added that the coalition government will work together to drive the country’s economic growth for the rest of this year during a period of a declining global economy. Thailand’s economy has to be driven by domestic actions such as investments in infrastructure projects and a boost to domestic consumption.
“We have already discussed this with the new Transport Minister from Bhumjaithai Party, who wanted to speed up investment to develop the country’s infrastructure in order to boost the country’s economy in the rest of this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, Somkid said, he had also held talks with the new Finance Minister over launching, perhaps soon, a stimulus package to boost domestic spending by focusing on lower-income people.
“The Finance Ministry has a sufficient budget to boost domestic consumption for the rest of this year,” he said.
Somkid said if the plan was implemented, he was confident it would boost the country's economy for the remainder of 2019 and perhaps drive economic growth above 3.5 per cent.