Experts give poor rating to govt's economic solutions

They gave an average score of 3.83 out of 10 in key economic areas, according to results of the survey by Bangkok University’s Research Institute, better known as Bangkok Poll.

The government got an average score of 5 on the growth of gross domestic product, 3.75 for its dealing with public debt, 3.47 in tackling economic inequality, 3.17 in taking care of consumer-product prices, and 3.03 in dealing with energy prices. Regarding the government’s performance on economic matters following last year’s flood crisis, it scored an average of 4.53.

The economists surveyed were asked to rate the government’s performance involving economic affairs in the six areas mentioned above as excellent, good, fair, bad or deplorable. Only 0.3 per cent of the respondents chose “excellent”. The largest groups among the economists surveyed opted for “fair” (39.7 per cent) or “bad” (33.6 per cent).

Among other respondents, 9.5 per cent said they found the government’s performance to be “good”, 10.1 per cent to be “deplorable” and the remaining 6.8 per cent did not answer this question or said they did not know.

The survey was conducted among 63 economists working for 26 economic- and financial-related organisations, including state agencies, economic think tanks, research houses, commercial banks, financial institutions and university economics faculties. 

Among the 26 organisations named in the survey report were the Bank of Thailand, National Economic and Social Development Board, Thailand Development Research Institute, Kasikorn Research Centre, Stock Exchange of Thailand, Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Capital Nomura Securities, Khon Kaen University and Chiang Mai University.

The economists surveyed were all graduates in economics, with 70 per cent of them holding master’s degrees in the subject, and another 16 per cent holding doctorates. More than half had work experience of at least 11 years, with 27 per cent of the respondents having worked for more than 20 years.

The survey was conducted between April 20 and 25 through questionnaires sent through electronic mail. The government is set to have run the country for nine months in May.

The economists surveyed were asked to choose three of the government’s implemented policies they found to be “excellent”, with each respondent being allowed to select three.

Most of those surveyed, or almost 55 per cent, chose the project to get rid of drugs within 12 months. That was followed by 35.3 per cent who picked the tax refund for first-time car buyers, and 33.3 per cent who favoured the universal healthcare project. 

Another 25.5 per cent of respondents chose the offer of a tax refund to first-time home-buyers, and 21.6 per cent the issuing of credit cards to farmers to buy their production supplies.

Slightly over one in five of the respondents, or 21.6 per cent, did not find any government project to be “excellent”.

When asked to choose the government’s implemented policies they found to be “deplorable”, the largest group of the economists surveyed, 43.5 per cent, chose the project to cancel the Oil Fund, which helps subsidise fuel prices when oil becomes expensive.

The second-largest group, 40.3 per cent, picked the project of price pledges for paddy rice, followed by 38.7 per cent who went for the project of distributing tablet computers to primary-school students, and another 38.7 per cent for the promise to raise the minimum daily wage to Bt300 within 90 days. 

Another 25.8 per cent said they found the project of offering the starting monthly salary of Bt15,000 to new university graduates to be worst.

No respondents agreed with the statement, “None of the government projects can be described as deplorable.”

All the projects mentioned in the survey were the ruling Pheu Thai Party’s key policy platforms announced during its campaign ahead of the general elections in July last year.