Populist spending will cause damage

How appropriate it was when Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong – after his call for the Bank of Thailand to further cut the policy rate in order to boost the country’s economy – was in turn told by economists to rein in the government’s spending, especially on populist policies, in order for the country to remain solvent in the long run.

Interest rates around the world are already on the downward trend. But what’s worrying for Thailand is the Yingluck government’s big-time populist spending. Kittiratt’s direct responsibility as minister of commerce is to keep the lid on consumer product prices and facilitate the atmosphere of good investment in the country, especially after the country’s most devastating floods in half a century. He should have spelled out what he planned to do concerning that issue.

Thus, Kittiratt’s focus on interest rates in the speech given at the “Reinvent Thailand” seminar was wide of the mark.

Vint Chavala

Lamphun