Thailand announced the introduction of a new economic stimulus package worth $10.2 billion or €6 billion to boost a floundering economy.
Thai finance minister, Uttama Savanayana said that the country had been preparing for an economic slowdown in the face of an imminent recession in major economies across the world.
The size of the multi billion economic stimulus package for Thailand will amount to 1.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
The finance minister added that out of the total Thailand economic stimulus fund, 109 billion baht will funded directly by the government while the rest of the money will be loaned by government run financial institutions.
Thailand’s economy had been badly hit in 2019 due to the on-going trade war between US and China, the strong baht and a prolonged drought.
Through the economic stimulus package for Thailand, the government intends to provide cheaper loans for small and medium scale businesses, support farmers, and lower income earners and also focus more on Thailand’s tourism industry.
The Thailand finance minister said, “It is estimated that these measures will inject at least additional 200 billion baht circulation of money in the economy in the latter half of the year.”
Thailand’s GDP grew by 2.8 percent by the end of March 2019 when compared over the same time period in 2018. The growth rate is the lowest in the last four years.
The predicted economic growth of Thailand for the year 2019 was 3.3 to 3.8 percent. But the slow economic growth rate as of yet does not seem to support the prediction.
Thailand is Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, behind Indonesia, the nineteenth largest economy by purchasing power parity and 25th in the world by nominal GDP.