Thailand

• Finance minister backs policy rate, calls for new growth areas – The current policy rate of 1.5% is accommodative enough to support economic growth, says Finance Minister Sommai Phasee. (Bangkok Post, 6/5/15)
• Fishing industry selling new image to Europe to counter IUU threat – Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn will lead a delegation of Thai seafood exporters to Germany, France and the United Kingdom later this month to showcase the government’s progress in solving chronic problems in the fisheries industry. (The Nation, 6/5/15)
• Section 44 eyed to transfer state land for SEZs – The Industry Ministry plans to apply Section 44, which allows the military to deal with some issues, to land transfers in order to acquire land to be developed as special economic zones (SEZs) more quickly. (Bangkok Post, 4/5/15)

• Appraisals to be finalised by next year – The Treasury Department expects to be able to complete its valuations of Thailand’s entire 32 million land plots by next year, in time to be used as a base to calculate the proposed land and buildings tax. As of last Thursday, the department had assessed the prices of 4 million land plots and will evaluate 8 million more this year, directorgeneral Chakkrit Parapuntakul said. (Bangkok Post, 6/5/15)
• Min. of Finance: Export growth may contract this year – The Ministry of Finance has admitted that Thailand’s export sector suffers from several factors and would likely contract this year, citing projections for gross domestic product of less than 3.7 percent this year. The ministry revealed that the export sector recovered at a slower rate than it had previously expected. The ministry now forecasts the sector to contract in 2015. It blamed the economic slowdown of China, Thailand’s major trading partner. China’s first quarter economic growth was at -14.4 percent with a 7 percent annual growth predicted. The figure shrank from the earlier predicted 7.2 percent. (NNT, 5/5/15)
• Credit bureau doesn’t expect rise in bad debt – While The National Credit Bureau (NCB) sees the potential for household debt to rise further, possibly peaking at 90 per cent of gross domestic product, it does not expect bad debt to climb as lenders are shifting their focus to clients with a monthly income of at least Bt50,000. High levels of household debt are found among lower-income people bringing in less than Bt15,000 per month, a segment that is the main focus of non-bank lenders and providers of unsecured loan. According to the NCB, household debt at the end of March totalled around Bt10.4 trillion, representing 85.9 per cent of gross domestic product. Forty-four per cent of the amount was owed to commercial banks, and another 30 per cent to special financial institution. (The Nation, 6/5/15)
• Pridiyathorn: No worries over deflation – Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula has brushed aside the possibility that Thailand will have deflation, citing tourism, private investment and government spending as areas on course for growth. “I’ve already consulted Bank of Thailand governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, the secretary general of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), and Finance Minister Sommai Phasee, all of whom mutually see Thailand as yet to cross a deflationary boundary,” he said. “The contraction of consumer prices for four months in a row was due mainly to oil prices, which fell to US$50-60 a barrel from $100 in the same period last year.” (Bangkok Post, 7/5/15)
• Politics key to growth, warns ADB – Local politics and external uncertainties are the major threats to Thailand’s economic growth, but the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is maintaining its 2015 growth forecast at 3.6% on the expectation that exports will gain pace. The government must keep an eye on political stability and ensure an election will go ahead next year as planned, ADB chief economist and director-general of economic research and regional cooperation Wei Shang-Jin said in an interview with the Bangkok Post .”Any uncertainties will not be good for investment, because investors are unable to plan for the longer horizon,” he said. (Bangkok Post, 7/5/15)
• Stimulus proposal to PM on May 29 – The Finance Ministry will propose economic stimulus measures to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who will visit the ministry on May 29. “The proposed stimulus package will emphasise farmers, SMEs and tourism – related businesses that have been affected,” permanent secretary Rungson Sriworasat said yesterday. (The Nation, 8/5/15) ]
• Pridiyathorn: Baht may slide further, Weaker currency set to benefit exporters – The depreciating baht could be weakened further by the Bank of Thailand’s recent measures to relax curbs on movement of capital flows, says Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula. “These measures will create more balance between buying and selling. Now we have started to see [the baht] falling, but it could be weaker as the measures have just been announced,” he said. (Bangkok Post, 8/5/15)
• Consumer confidence hits 10-month low – Consumer confidence fell for a fourth straight month in April, hitting a 10-month low as concerns persisted about the high cost of living, weak farm prices and the slower-than-expected economic recovery. (Bangkok Post, 8/5/15)

Globally

• Global Economy Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Rises to Second-Highest Since 2007 – Consumer confidence increased in April to the second-highest level in more than eight years as Americans grew more upbeat about their financial prospects. The University of Michigan said Friday that its final index for the month increased to 95.9 from 93 in March. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for 96, little changed from the preliminary April reading of 95.9. (Bloomberg, 1/5/15)
• U.S. manufacturing index holds steady in April – Economic activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector continued to expand in April at the same pace as in the previous month, an industry survey showed on Friday. The manufacturing index, also known as the purchasing managers index (PMI), registered 51.5 percent in April, unchanged from the prior month but below market expectations of 52 percent, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in a report. (Xinhua, 2/5/15)
• Russian Central Bank cuts key interest rate by 1.5 pct – Russia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate on Thursday by 1.5 percent, from 14 to 12.5 percent, noting that it could be further cut according to real situations. The decision took into account the weakening of inflationary risks and latest appreciation of Russian currency ruble, the bank’ s board of directors said in an online statement. (Xinhua, 1/5/15)
• Moody’s downgrades Greek credit rating to Caa2 – Credit rating agency Moody’s has further downgraded Greece’s credit rating to Caa2 from Caa1 and assigned a negative outlook, Greek national news agency AMNA reported on Thursday. The rating is just two steps away from the level signaling imminent default. (Xinhua, 30/4/15)
• China’s manufacturing activity deteriorates in April – Chinese manufacturing contracted at the fastest rate in a year in April, suggesting continued downward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy, a survey published Monday said. The HSBC/Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for China’s manufacturing sector in April stood at 48.9, lower than the market forecast of 49.4 and the preliminary reading of 49.2. (Xinhua, 4/5/15)
• Japan’s jobless rate improves to 3.4 pct in March – Japan’s unemployment rate improved to 3.4 percent in March from 3.5 percent the previous month, the government said Friday. The ratio of employment offers to seekers stayed at 1.15 in March from February, which means 115 positions were available for every 100 job seekers, local news agency Kyodo reported. (Xinhua, 1/5/15)
• Japan household spending in March posts sharpest fall since Jan. 2001 – Japanese household spending in March posted the biggest year-on-year drop in more than a decade, plunging an inflation-adjusted 10.6 percent, due mainly to the surge in beat-the-tax shopping ahead of the consumption tax hike in April last year, the government said Friday. (Kyodo, 1/5/15)
• U.S. reports soaring trade deficit in March – U.S. trade gap widened further in March, driven by a surge in imports, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The country’s trade deficit expanded 43 percent from the previous month to 51.4 billion U.S. dollars in March, the largest since October 2008. In March, exports increased 1.6 billion dollars from February, or 0.9 percent, to 187.8 billion dollars, while imports rose 7.7 percent to 239.2 billion dollars. (Xinhua, 6/5/15)
• U.S. service sector expansion picks up in April – The U.S. economic activity in the service sector picked up expansion pace in April, an industry survey showed Tuesday. The NonManufacturing Index (NMI), which measures activity in the country’s service sector, registered 57.8 in March, 1.3 points higher than March’s reading, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its monthly survey. (Xinhua, 6/5/15)
• Survey shows U.S. private sector hiring slows sharply in April – The U.S. private sector hiring slowed in April to the slowest pace in nearly a year and a half as energy and manufacturing companies continued to lay off workers, said a private survey released Wednesday. U.S. private companies added 169,000 jobs in April, down from 175,000 in the previous month and the fewest since January 2014, said the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody’s Analytics, based on a monthly survey. (Xinhua, 7/5/15)
• Greece raises 1.13 bln euros in treasury bill sale, repays 200 mln euros to IMF – Greece drew 1.138 billion euros (1.28 billion U.S. dollars) from the latest treasury bills sale conducted on Wednesday, the public debt management organization PDMA said. Meanwhile, Athens repaid a 200 million euro loan installment to the International Monetary Fund, Finance Ministry sources said. (Xinhua, 6/5/15)
  Euro zone business activity starts second-quarter on solid footing – Euro zone businesses started the second quarter with healthy growth as a buoyant order book again encouraged them to hire more, a survey showed on Wednesday. Markit’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, seen as a good guide to growth, was 53.9 in April, ahead of an earlier flash reading of 53.5 but just behind March’s 11-month high of 54.0. A reading above 50 implies growth. (Reuters, 6/5/15)
• Home sales in major Chinese cities spike in April – Sales volume of new homes in China’s major cities posted a solid gain in April with the support of the recent policy easing, the latest industry report showed. New home sales in China’s 30 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen surged 15.1 percent in April from the previous month to 16.57 million square meters, also representing an increase of 30.8 percent from the previous year, according to the report released by E-house China R&D Institute, a leading property consultancy. (Xinhua, 6/5/15)
• U.S. Jobless Claims Hover Near 15-Year Low – The number of Americans applying for firsttime unemployment benefits rose slightly last week after touching a 15-year low, but the level remains consistent with an economy that is adding jobs. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S. economy, increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 in the week ended May 2, the Labor Department said Thursday. (WSJ, 7/5/15)
• Investors are waiting for the release of the U.S. Department of Labor’s nonfarm payrolls due on Friday to get a more clear look of the market direction, mainly swayed by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on a rate hike, which could happen possibly as early as June. Traders are looking for signs of an improving economy to point to the possible timing of the U.S. central bank’s decision. (Xinhua, 8/5/15)
• Yellen will keep raising market red flags: Chicago Fed’s Evans – Investors should get used to the Federal Reserve discussing market-stability issues, said Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Fed, on Thursday. Many analysts have argued that the Fed’s zero-interest-rate policy has fostered instability, so it’s “incumbent” on the U.S. central bank to address instability risks, he said. (Marketwatch, 7/5/15)
• ECB raises ceiling on Greek emergency loans again – The ECB raised the amount the Greek central bank can lend its banks to EUR78.9 billion ($88.25 billion) from EUR76.9 billion the previous week, according to the official. Under the emergency-liquidity assistance program, or ELA, the Greek central bank lends money to its country’s financial institutions. The loans carry a higher interest rate than standard ECB loans, and the credit risk stays with Greece. (Marketwatch, 7/5/15)