Pichai pointed out that Prayut failed to cope with economic problems, inflation, interest rates, weak baht. Pendant to solve the problem of expensive electricity The gas dispute in the Gulf of Thailand and the availability of up to 100 billion baht per year Worried about the trend following Sri Lanka
Mr. Pichai Naripthaphan, Former Minister of Energy And the Pheu Thai Party’s vice president for economic affairs revealed that the US inflation in June reached 9.1%, the highest in 40 years, even though the US had just raised interest rates to 0.75%, but still can’t control inflation. It will have to raise interest rates up to 1% in the meeting of the US Federal Reserve soon, which will have a huge impact on the Thai economy. Because different interest rates will cause foreign currency to flow out. which is natural for foreign capital to go out to seek higher returns This will further weaken the baht’s value. and will cause inflation to rise further.
Mr Pichai also said that Thailand’s current account deficit in recent months making the situation worse
most recently in June Thailand trade deficit of 1.2 billion dollars or 40 billion baht, aggravating after the first 5 months Thailand has a trade deficit of 4,726 million US dollars. And capital has flowed out over 30 billion US dollars (over 1 trillion baht) since the beginning of the year. And there is also a tendency to flow more. Until the private sector is concerned that the weak baht will break past 37 baht per dollar soon. may reach 40 baht per dollar And it may cause Thailand’s inflation that is about to break through 8%, it may reach 10%, which is very worrying. meanwhile If Thailand raises interest rates, it will affect household debt as high as 15 trillion baht, or more than 90% of GDP, and public debt of more than 10 trillion baht, or more than 60% of GDP. which if the interest rate increases It will increase the burden even more.
“Therefore, concerns about debt explosions In Thailand, there are more and more from the mismanagement of the economy. General Prayut, therefore, the inflation problem interest problem The problem of the weak baht and the problem of debt explosion will be a big problem Gen. Prayut has to deal with, which Gen. Prayut has little knowledge and understanding of these matters. This will cause more economic problems to increase,” said Pichai.
Mr. Pichai continued that although the oil price in the world market may decrease somewhat. But still can change all the time The worrying issue is the problem of the price adjustment of electricity that will skyrocket from 4 baht per unit to 5 baht per unit, creating a shock. and worries all around Both public expenditures will increase. and Thailand’s competitiveness that will decline Because no one would want to invest in a country where electricity bills are exorbitantly expensive. The way to fix it must go to the root cause of the problem. is to find a resolution in the dispute between the former concession company Chevron and the new concession company PTTEP and Mutabara in the delivery of the concession. And who will be responsible for the costly dismantling of offshore gas rigs? and may be prosecuted in case of demolition May cause pollution in the seas and coasts in order to bring up gas from the Gulf of Thailand. After being unable to bring in large quantities of natural gas due to the dispute Therefore, Thailand has to import LNG that is more expensive than $30 per unit to replace it. and causing the FT price of electricity to skyrocket
In addition, the overcapacity of electricity reaches 50% of the peak demand. thus having to pay the availability fee to the power plant But it does not deliver electricity, with a monthly balance of more than 8,000 million baht or about a hundred billion baht per year, which is very high. It was a mistake in the electricity production policy of General Prayut And at present, there is still a license to produce electricity. Even though the production capacity is still overflowing, Gen. Prayut must find a way to negotiate a reduction in this readiness rate. and temporarily suspend the granting of a license to produce electricity until the demand for electricity increases That means the Thai economy has to expand more.
“It can be seen that energy management in the General Prayut for 8 years had a lot of problems, but fortunately, the first 6-7 years of oil prices And other energy prices are still cheap, so people are not affected much. But when the price of oil and the price of energy is much more expensive full of problems Like a stump of water, so Gen. Prayut will have to go in and fix the price structure of the entire energy system. to make energy prices fair to the people both oil prices cooking gas price and electricity prices,” said Mr. Pichai.
Mr. Pichai also said that the negotiations on the Thai-Cambodian overlap areas must be accelerated to solve the problem of expensive energy. and the state earns a lot more as well It would also diversify the risk of Myanmar gas dependence, which accounts for 17%, because the Myanmar military government could be further squeezed by the international community. Thailand should think and prepare in advance to protect and preserve the interests of Thai people
There are warnings and concerns from many parties that the situation in Thailand will be like Sri Lanka. In fact, Thailand’s current status is much better than Sri Lanka. from the old merits accumulated from many governments in the past but if they are managed as they are Chances are it will be like Sri Lanka, it is highly possible. because the situation in the world is changing rapidly But Thai leaders lack knowledge and understanding. And there has always been a wrong management approach. and would like the public to follow the opposition’s no-confidence debate that will take place today.
