BANGKOK : Thailand’s central bank will focus on creating conditions for expanding debt relief and credit for firms to boost the flagging economy, the bank’s chief said, adding that already low interest rates had become a blunt tool for many policymakers.
Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput also told Reuters in an interview that, while an economy under pressure from the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak yet might shrink in the third quarter from the second, he did not expect it to contract in 2021 as a whole.
Curbs to contain COVID-19 have crippled activity in Thailand’s dominant in tourism sector, which in a normal year accounts for 11-12per cent of GDP and 20per cent of employment, though increased exports and fiscal measures have lent the economy some support.
The central bank’s (BOT) monetary policy committee last week voted 4-2 to hold the one-day repurchase rate at a record…
