BOT assures instruments to maintain national economic stability

BANGKOK, November 1 (TNA) - The Bank of Thailand (BOT) is closely monitoring the updated domestic political situation, assuring that it has enough instruments to maintain the national economic stability. BOT Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul made the remarks on Friday, insisting that the Thai central bank is closely following up updates relating to protests against the government-sponsored amnesty bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives earlier in the day. Prasarn acknowledged that the Thai economy could face short-term impacts from the controversial amnesty bill, but the BOT has prepared enough instruments to uphold the national economic stability. Prasarn said he believes international investors understand the situation in Thailand and consider long-term investment plans in the Kingdom, rather than focusing only on ongoing political demonstrations. According to the BOT chief, the Thai economy has been gradually expanding since early this year, clearly seen by some economic figures and the BOT is looking into whether the national economy is recovering along with the world economy, which has shown signs of rebounding. The BOT chief projected that Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) should grow by an appropriate rate of 4.8 per cent year-on-year in 2014, boosted mainly by the Thai government’s new mega-investment projects in the current 2014 fiscal year, which starts from October 1, 2013. (TNA)