Finance Ministry to propose more stimulus measures, ‘New Year gifts’
Schemes that could create future financial burden will be avoided, says ministry spokesman
The Finance Ministry will propose to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra next Monday (November 4) measures to stimulate the economy in the last two months of 2024 as well as “New Year gifts” for the public at year-end.
These measures aim to further boost economic growth in the rest of the year without excessively increasing public debt, Pornchai Teerawet, director of the Fiscal Policy Office and ministry spokesman, said on Thursday.
The ministry estimated that these measures would help Thailand achieve the target economic expansion of 2.7% in 2024, while running a budget deficit of not over 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), he said.
In the past years, these “New Year gifts” have included discounts on fuel prices, toll fees and utilities to promote public spending and tourism at the year-end.
Pornchai said that the ministry and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have a mutual understanding in supporting economic growth using both financial and monetary policies to achieve the 3% GDP expansion target in 2025.
“On the ministry’s part, focus will be shifted away from stimulus measures that significantly increase public debt burden, to avoid creating problems in future financial management,” he said. “Meanwhile, the BOT would focus on using monetary policies to increase private investment and facilitate economic expansion.”
Pornchai added that financial policies often yield immediate results, which would last for only a while, in contrast with the monetary counterpart.
“For example, it could be as late as the first quarter of next year to see the full effect of the interest rate cut by BOT’s Monetary Policy Committee earlier this month, and the effect could last for 6-8 quarters,” he said.
