BoT maintains its policy interest rate unchanged at 1.5 percent

BANGKOK, March 29 (TNA) -- The Bank of Thailand (BoT) maintains its policy interest rate unchanged at 1.5 percent deemed necessary to spur growth. BoT’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members on Wednesday voted 6 to 1 to keep the policy rate at 1.5 percent, said Jaturong Jantarangs, Secretary of the MPC. One member of the members voted to raise the policy rate by 0.25 percentage point from to 1.75 percent. It was the first time in three years the MPC does not come up with unanimous decision in deliberating their policy decision. Mr Jaturong said the majority of the MPC members viewed that “the economy continued to gain further traction and would achieve higher growth than previously assessed in the last quarter, driven by both growth in the external sector and gradual improvements in domestic demand.” The current accommodative monetary policy stance remained conducive to the continuation of economic growth and should foster the return of headline inflation to target, said Jatorong. Thailand’s growth outlook was still subject to external risks that continued to warrant monitoring, including uncertainties pertaining to US economic and foreign trade policies, retaliatory measures from trading partners of the US, and geopolitical risks, the MPC says in its statement. However, the MPC agreed to revise up its projection for Thailand’s economic growth this year to 4.1 percent, from the previous projection of 3.9 percent, Jaturong said. (TNA)