The Thai Cabinet today approved three new stimulus packages to prop up the softening economy, said Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana.
The government expects the measures to propel full-year economic growth to 2.8% from a projection of 2.6% recently announced by the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC).
The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) has recently announced that Thailand’s Q3 2019 GDP growth came in at 2.4 percent, adjusting the overall GDP growth this year down to 2.6 percent, citing negative factors from the trade war affecting the export sector.
The aim is to boost the economy during the remainder of this year and the first quarter of next year
Finance Minister, Mr Uttama Savanayana
1. Grassroot economy booster
The first package is to boost the grassroots economy and is divided into three sub-projects, namely a village fund for 71,742 villages graded A, B and C.
Each will receive 200,000 baht to invest in community rice barns, space to dry crops, rice mills, organic fertilizer, water sources or machinery for processing farm products.
There is also the Credit for Community Business project under which the BAAC will provide credit lines, amounting to 50 billion baht, to Village Funds and urban communities for investment in small businesses. The credit line will be for three years at an annual interest rate of 0.01%. The program will start on December 1st and end on November 30th 2023.
2. Helping farmers to reduce costs
To help farmers cover harvesting and rice quality improvement costs for the 2019-20 crop year, each household will…