Key insights
- Thailand is considering raising its internal debt-to-GDP ceiling of 70% due to the current economic crisis. While fiscal discipline remains a priority, the government is debating whether to increase the ceiling and how to allocate any additional funds, potentially focusing on transitioning to renewable energy and upgrading skills for vulnerable populations. This introduces slight uncertainty into emerging market stability, indirectly impacting US equities.
April 15 (Reuters) - Thailand has not yet decided whether it will increase its internal ceiling on a key debt ratio, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said on Wednesday.
Nitithanprapas, who is also the deputy prime minister, said the 70% for public debt-to-GDP was an internal ceiling.
"We still put fiscal discipline under core function of fiscal policy," the minister said during a panel discussion at the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington.
"But given the crisis at the moment, frankly speaking, we are working into details, whether we should internally increase the ceiling."
The question of what any additional money would be used for was also being debated, he said.
"In my opinion, we have to use it to for the transitions and transformations, like things that we have discussed, transition from oil dependencies to renewable energy, and also to upgrade people to help vulnerable groups of people to upgrade their skills, so that that’s the things that we are considering."