BANGKOK: Thailand's economy is picking up speed in 2015 as government spending accelerates and urban consumption improves after political turmoil last year choked growth, its finance minister said on Wednesday.
If the economy continues to improve the government plans to go ahead with plans to raise value-added tax (VAT) by 1 percentage point to 8 percent by the end of September to boost state finances, Sommai Phasee told Reuters in an interview.
Protests paralysed Thailand's government in the first half of last year, hurting tourism and denting consumer confidence. The military seized power in May to end the turmoil, but has struggled to revive Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
Thailand's economic growth should accelerate to 2-3 percent in the first quarter on the year, Sommai said, although that would be below the government's 4 percent growth target which will be tough to meet. "We are seeing the economy start to pick up," he said. "Four percent will be challenging."
Rising tax revenue in January was a good indicator of improved investment, and urban consumers were starting to spend, he said.
VAT revenue rose nearly 10 percent in January from a year earlier, he said.
Ideally, the government should raise VAT to 10 percent, its level during the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, but that could only happen gradually and if the economy improves, he said.
Economists expect government spending on infrastructure to spur growth this year, although delays in disbursement of funds pose a downside risk to their projections.
Sommai, who was appointed finance minister in August by coup leader and now Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, said that delays in government spending were initially due to bureaucrats working through new rules imposed to prevent corruption.
Those projects, many of them initiated by the ousted administration of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, would now proceed, he added.
The junta is under pressure to speed up infrastructure spending projects to rev up growth amid weak exports and sluggish domestic demand.
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