Thai PM Srettha says economy in a mess as tourist arrivals, growth fall
- Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he would focus on attracting foreign investment and addressing household debt to revive growth
- He also pushed for a controversial US$14 billion digital stimulus plan to pull the economy out of the doldrums
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Thursday the country’s economy was in “crisis”, stressing the need to forge ahead with his controversial 500 billion baht (US$14.23 billion) digital handouts policy.
Speaking at a forum, Srettha said the economy was not in good shape with fewer foreign arrivals than targeted, and he would be prioritising attracting foreign investment and addressing household debt.
“There needs to be big economic stimulus,” said Srettha, who is also finance minister, adding a plan to tackle debt would be announced on December 12.
His comments comes days after data from the state-planning agency showed lower-than expected growth of 1.5 per cent in the July-September quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace this year, on weak exports and government spending.
Thailand recorded 23.85 million foreign tourists arriving from January 1 to November 19, spending 1 trillion baht.
It is targeting 28 million arrivals versus a pre-pandemic record of nearly 40 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2019 who spent 1.91 trillion baht.