Economy and industry

The government aims to accelerate the country’s R&D spending to 2.2% of GDP in seven years to improve economic development and reduce social disparity in the face of future uncertainty.“We are on a roadmap to become an innovation country as we are scaling up efforts ...

The consumer price index (CPI), a gauge of headline inflation, fell 0.34% year-on-year last month, marking the 11th straight monthly decline since March 2020.According to Pimchanok Pitfield, director-general of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office, major contributions came from low energy prices (down 4.82%) from ...

The Finance Ministry is preparing to reconsider the eligibility criteria for receiving financial aid under the Rao Chana (We Win) scheme, which stipulates recipients should have a taxable income of no more than 300,000 baht per year.Approved in January, the We Win scheme aims to ...

Fuel consumption in Thailand contracted in January, especially for jet fuel, following the return of Covid-19 in mid-December last year, according to the Department of Energy Business (DOEB).The largest plunge was jet fuel consumption, which contracted by 82.6% to a daily average of 3.85 from ...

The Commerce Ministry has teamed up with 11 digital platforms to roll out new discount campaigns, running until Feb 28, to relieve economic hardship amid the pandemic.According to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, more than 100,000 shops are participating in the new campaign, with 1 million ...

The Commerce Ministry has pledged to speed up tackling the container shortage and open more border checkpoints to increase trade, aiming to reach the ministry’s goal of export growth of 4% this year.Speaking after the year’s first meeting of Joint Public and Private Sector Consultative ...

The Tourism Minister will discuss with the prime minister a request for 5 million doses of vaccination for the tourism industry and also push a vaccine passport measure to enable foreigners to return in the third quarter of this year.Minister for Tourism and Sports Phiphat ...

New Department of Land Transport (DLT) regulations governing the minimum speed and power of electric vehicles (EVs) were published in the government gazette on Thursday.The rules apply to the engine size of electric cars, pickups, taxis, three-wheelers and motorcycles.The first category covers inter-provincial service vehicles ...

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCID) estimated on Wednesday that the Thai economy would grow 1.5-3.5 per cent this year.In addition, exports are likely to grow by 3-5 per cent, while inflation is hoped to be at most 1 per cent.The ...

Consumer confidence dropped for a second straight month in January, hitting a nine-month low, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce reported on Thursday.The UTTC consumer index fell to 47.8 in January from 50.1 in December.The report attributed the drop to concerns about the ...