BOT backs budget bill in meeting with lawmakers’ panel
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has told a committee of lawmakers to consider the fiscal 2023 budget bill as the country’s economy is showing steady improvement and the trend was likely to continue in 2023.
The BOT cited major contributions to the economic recovery from increasing domestic demand and revival of tourism.
The House of Representatives committee held a meeting with officials from the central bank and related agencies on Tuesday after the first reading of fiscal 2023 budget bill had been approved in principle by the House of Representatives during voting last Friday (June 3).
“The BOT estimated that the total number of foreign tourists in 2022 would reach 5.6 million people, while Thailand’s gross domestic product would bounce back to the same level as before the Covid-19 outbreak by the first quarter of 2023,” the committee’s spokesman, Paopoom Rojanasakul, said on Wednesday as he summarised Tuesday’s meeting.
“Negative factors that could hinder economic recovery include the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, which has affected global consumption and investment, and the rising inflation,” he added.
“Meanwhile, the BOT estimated that the impact from the Omicron wave will be significantly smaller than that of the Delta wave last year.”
Agencies that participated in the meeting also notified the committee that in the rest of 2022, Thailand would face two major risk factors, namely rising domestic cost of living and shortage of foods, raw materials and fuel in the manufacturing sectors. These factors will further increase the inflation rate and will continue to rise until next year, when it is expected to gradually come down.
The committee also noted that the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive increasing of interest rate by half a percentage point on May 4 in an effort to slow inflation, which is considered the highest in 40 years, is having an impact on Thailand’s export sector.
