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Thailand has sufficient budget to tackle pandemic’s economic effects: official

The Thai Government has sufficient budget to tackle the economic effects of the second wave of COVID-19, Director of the country’s Budget Bureau (BB) Dechapiwat Na Songkhla said on January 5.
Thailand has sufficient budget to tackle pandemic’s economic effects: official ảnh 1People wearing face masks to avoid COVID-19 infection at a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai Government has sufficient budget to tackle theeconomic effects of the second wave of COVID-19, Director of the country’s BudgetBureau (BB) Dechapiwat Na Songkhla said on January 5.

TheBB chief said the Government still has more than 600 billion THB from thecentral budget for the fiscal year 2021 and the 1-trillion-THB loan decreelaunched in 2019.

PatriciaMongkhonvanit, Director-General of the Public Debt Management Office, said theGovernment still has 400 billion THB left from the 1-trillion-THB loan bill totake care of the economy in the midst of the resurgence of virus infections.

Underthe 1-trillion-THB borrowing plan, it also took out 370 billion THB with 348billion THB earmarked for economic and social rehabilitation.

Latestdata showed that more than 100,000 employees have lost their jobs or beensuspended from work as a result of the closure of more than 6,000 businesses in28 red-zone provinces in the wake of the new outbreak.

LabourMinister Suchart Chomklin said insured workers left unemployed due to thepandemic could begin applying for compensation payments from January 4.

Meanwhile,the Bank of Thailand and the Thai Bankers Association are set to meet todiscuss measures to help businesses affected by the resurgence of COVID-19infections.

Asource with the financial market said the two agencies initially agreed onthree pillars, “Restructuring, Reviving and Reform”, to maintain financialstability of financial institutions.

TheJoint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) also plansto reassess Thailand's economic outlook in 2021 as stronger state measuresagainst the new outbreak have begun to affect employment in at-risk provinces.

Asurge in daily infections since late 2020, with a record of 745 new coronaviruscases on January 4, has meant several business sectors, particularlyrestaurants, are suffering.

Thesituation prompted the JSCCIB to reconsider the pandemic’s impact on theeconomy, according to Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries SupantMongkolsuthree./.
VNA
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