October 21, 2008
Bangkok - Former finance minister Somkid Chatusripitak urged the Bang of Thailand (BoT) and finance ministry to closely work together to deal with the economic problem.
Finance Minister Suchart Thadathamrongvej previously had an idea to lower the bath currency to support the export sector.
However, BoT Governor Tarisa Watanagase disagreed to the idea.
Suchart also wanted to extend the period of deposit guarantee from one to three years and postpone the enforcement of the Basel 2 criteria with commercial banks.
Somkid said the fiscal policy had to be in line with the financial policy to boost the country’s economy.
He asked people not to worry too much though many parties were afraid that global financial crisis would affect Thai economy.
Somkid reasoned that Thailand’s status was still ok and measures would be launched to solve economic problem when necessary.
In 1997, Thailand was unprepared to cope with economic problem when the financial crisis took place.
