The Finance Ministry has resolved to expedite drafting the 2011 budget bill, aiming to have it completed by mid-September before the planned dissolution of the House. Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij stated that as Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has declared that he will dissolve the House and make way for an election on November 14, the ministry is now obligated to complete its drafting of the 2011 budget bill as soon as possible.

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Finance Ministry to Expedite Budget Bill Drafting

Sectors linked to external demand (namely, manufacturing, hotels and transport) have been the main contributors to growth since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, and have also determined the dynamics of the economy in 2008-09. These sectors have accounted for almost all of the annual changes in real GDP.
Overall, domestic demand should provide a positive but limited contribution to growth: vulnerable households lost ground in 2009 and risks are substantial in 2010, as falling agricultural output due to the current drought may offset opportunities from the improved overall economic environment. Household consumption levels, which are highly correlated with the poverty rate, contracted in 2009 despite the rebound in the last quarter of the year, suggesting a likely increase in the poverty rate compared to 2008, especially when compounded by the loss in purchasing power from the food and fuel crisis of 2008. The outlook for 2010 is uncertain : average wages are likely to increase, thanks to the reallocation of labor from agriculture to manufacturing. Although labor markets appear very tight, with unemployment below 1 %, the data do not account for the large number of workers who moved to lower-productivity jobs in agriculture and informal services due to the crisis. Many of these workers are now returning to manufacturing, which offers higher wages than agriculture.

‘‘In part, the gains in the market are a function of wealth creation. Asian and Middle Eastern household wealth is growing faster than in the United States and Europe,’’. The broadening and deepening of the Asian capital markets has helped draw savings away from traditional asset classes such as bank deposits and mutual funds to equities.
But while Thai bosses may feel powerless to change market perceptions about political risk, plenty can be done to at least separate one’s company from the herd. Too many Thai companies have free floats and trading liquidity that are too constrained to attract institutional investors.

The modern Thai capital market can essentially be divided into two phases, beginning with “The Bangkok Stock Exchange” which was privately owned, followed by the establishment of “The Securities Exchange of Thailand”.

The inception of the Thai stock market began as far back as July 1962, when a private group established an organized stock exchange as a limited partnership. The group later became a limited company and changed its name to the “Bangkok Stock Exchange Co., Ltd.” (BSE) in 1963.
Despite its well-intended foundation the BSE was rather inactive. Annual turnover value consisted of only 160 million baht in 1968, and 114 million baht in 1969. Trading volumes continued to fall sharply thereafter to 46 million baht in 1970, and then 28 million baht in 1971. The turnover in debentures reached 87 million baht in 1972, but stocks continued to perform poorly, with turnover hitting an all time low of only 26 million baht. The BSE finally ceased operations in the early 1970s.

It is generally accepted that the BSE failed to succeed because of a lack of official government support and a limited investor understanding of the equity market.