Thailand Voice

Consider this headline from the Nation : The Bank of Thailand yesterday officially signalled a policy-rate hike in the second half of the year but promised to take into account the pace of economic recovery and inflation before making any move. Then, read what was… Read full story >>>

Britney Spears ? Nope. The Bank Of Thailand. Time passes and the BOT pursues with a striking constance -like all the other asian central banks- their suicidal mission : buying US Dollars, mountains of it, and worse  US Treasuries, AKA US debts in US Dollars, in order … Read full story >>>

There is a new Bangkok University poll asking those surveyed their views on how to handle the current situation with Cambodia and their views of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's interview with The Times (UK) (see blog post here about the interview). The Bangkok Post… Read full story >>>

BoT pushes liberalisation under new plan , writes Bangkok Post . As any normal human being, you would feel excited. So you decide to continue to read. And gradually, you feel baffled and eventually you end up in tears. That’s the beauty of Thailand : a perpetual… Read full story >>>

Decided to practice my preachings about Twitter Lists . I’ve created a list, @jonrussell/thailand , for English-language Twitter users in Thailand – both Thai and non-Thai – which is pretty comprehensive. You can access it at by clicking here or browsing the widget near the top of the blog’s right sidebar. Whilst it is… Read full story >>>

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(Source Bank Of Thailand, table FI_CB_015_S3 ). “ After the Green Shoots, the credit crunch ? “, I asked in august , regarding the figures for credit (from commercial banks in Thailand). Rethorical question… The trend is getting worse. The total outstanding credit for businesses recorded a drop … Read full story >>>

The chart speaks by itself. Foreign currency reserves (+ forward positions) reached 138 billions USD at the end of august, an increase of 18 % y-o-y, compared to august 2008 ! But meanwhile… the USD is losing ground versus the THB… Let’s look the reserves and the exchange rate USD-THB. (Source Bank … Read full story >>>

Thailand on Wednesday first granted then disallowed a 12-year-old Thai-born Burmese boy, Mong Thongdee, a temporary passport to represent the kingdom at an origami airplane-flying contest in Japan. He was the winner of last year’s national paper airplane contest, setting a record by… Read full story >>>

The amount of public relation work done by the various local government entities varies a great deal. While several especially in the poorer Northeast don’t even have a website, I’ve now come across one municipality which even publishes a quarterly magazine, covering 36 pages. Simply named … Read full story >>>

(Source Bank Of Thailand, table FI_CB_080_S2 ) I know : reading about the “road to recovery” (title displayed on CNN TV for instance), “better than expected” figures, “hopes”, “beginning of the start of the end of the recession”… in the USA and even Thailand… you scratch your… Read full story >>>

Thanong says on leave : Police chief Patcharawat Wongsuwan has taken leave of about 30 days from his office, giving Pol General Thanee Somboonsap a free hand in his investigation into the assassination attempt on media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul. Patcharawat’s leave is a result of a compromise between Prime Minister … Read full story >>>

The hydroelectric construction boom along the Mekong is well documented. So without knowing much more than that there was lots of documentation I went off to Kampot where nearby one of these phenomenal Space Odyssey -esque slabs of concrete is being erected. On the bus to … Read full story >>>

I’d like to see these electric cars start their own F-1 races. Look at how badly this electric car dusts the Ferrari and Porsche. Sure it’s got 1,000 lbs less weight (at least), but F-1 races would be ridiculously fast I think using some souped-up electric cars – yes? Or are they already as Read full story >>>

Since a few weeks, we hear calls for the BOT to use its foreign currency reserves, in order to boost the domestic economy. People don’t understand why the government should borrow billions of USD … when the BOT has a total of 122 billions in “reserves” (+… Read full story >>>

[IPS] Dams Across the Mekong Could Trigger a ‘Water War’ “For now, the lower stretches of the Mekong River remain a symbol of peace and tranquillity in a region that was once bloodied by war. But for how long?” tags : no_tag [AFP] Thai police offer reward for mosque attack leads “Whoever gives … Read full story >>>