Saluting Thailand’s military-run economy | MorungExpress

Shawn W Crispin 

For those looking for chinks in Thailand’s new government’s armor, they’ll be hard-pressed to find any vulnerability in the military-appointed interim administration’s economic stewardship. Six weeks after the September 19 coup, the Thai economy is moving from statistical strength to strength. While tanks rolled along Bangkok’s streets, Thai exporters ran up the country’s largest-ever monthly trade surplus at US$1.4 billion.

Those revenues contributed to Thailand’s biggest balance of payments surplus since 1997, evidence that foreign investors were pouring money into the country before, during and after the military seized power. Surging capital inflows last month pushed the baht to a six-year high against the greenback. 

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings provisionally placed Thailand on a so-called rating watch negative list after…