The Federation of Thai Industries revealed that floods are putting more pressure on the Thai economy, causing damages of more than 6-8 billion baht in one month.

The FTI revealed that the floods have put additional pressure on the Thai economy, with damages of more than 6-8 billion baht in a single month. It also supports the stricter measures to deal with mule accounts, aiming to expand the measures to include legal entities linked to mule accounts. Mr. Phayon Srivanich, Chairman of the Thai Bankers Association, chaired the meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry, and Banking (JSCCIB), with Mr. Thawee Piyapatana, Senior Vice President of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), and Mr. Sanan Angubolkul, Chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, joining the press conference. Mr. Phayon said that Thailand's domestic demand is still weak, reflected in investment. Although the government has accelerated budget disbursement, causing money into the system to grow by an average of more than 20% during May-July, the economy in the second quarter has slowed down, especially private investment, which contracted by as much as 6.8%, mainly due to the aut omotive group, whose domestic sales fell by 24%. Investment in the future is likely to slow down, reflected in the continued decline in consumer and business confidence. The flooding situation is an additional pressure on the Thai economy. It is estimated that the damage value for August to early September will be around 6-8 billion baht or 0.03-0.04% of GDP, with the agricultural sector being the most affected. In the next phase, we must monitor the storms that may hit during September to October. This is a risk to the flood situation that will further affect the Thai economy. The FTI meeting therefore maintained the 2024 economic forecast framework at 2.2-2.7. However, in this meeting, the FTI revised up the full-year export forecast to grow by 1.5-2.5% from the previous estimate of 0.8-1.5% after Thai exports in July grew by 15.2% driven by the global electronics cycle. However, such growth was still concentrated in the electronics group and did not represent a broad-based export growth. And from concer ns about the water situation and floods in the northern and upper central regions, the FTI has resolved to establish a sub-working group to prepare proposals on water management to present to the government sector, emphasizing long-term planning to increase efficiency in water management to prevent flooding like in 2011, focusing on developing water sources and linking water management infrastructure nationwide to ensure efficient water management, reduce flood risks, and increase water storage capacity. In addition, it has been proposed to link water demand and supply to ensure appropriate water management. Although the current flood situation is not as severe as in 2011, it is expected that in 2024 there will be 2 more storms passing through Thailand, which may affect the northeastern and northern regions during September-October 2024. Therefore, flash floods and mudslides must be monitored, especially in risk areas in Ang Thong and Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya provinces, which may be affected by the release of water from the Chao Phraya Dam. In addition, the FTI has proposed that relevant agencies compile water mass movement data in an easy-to-understand format so that business operators can promptly prepare to deal with the water situation. And there are measures to help entrepreneurs affected by the floods to restore their businesses, such as tax measures, production cost relief measures, and financial measures, etc. In addition, the FTI supports the approach to elevate the measures to manage financial fraud in the banking sector, which has intensively raised the level of mule account management by categorizing high-risk individuals into black, grey, and brown accounts. Information is shared among the banking sector and linked to the databases of the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) and the Central Fraud Registry (CFR) to manage existing mule accounts and prevent the opening of new mule accounts. If any individual is in the high-risk group, all accounts will be suspended and new accounts will not be opened. I n addition, it will be expanded to legal entity accounts, where information shows that accounts opened by legal entities have a large number of director names linked to mule accounts. In addition, the Thai Bankers Association and the Bank of Thailand have collaborated with all relevant sectors from upstream to downstream, namely the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), mobile network providers, the banking sector, government officials, and cryptocurrency providers, to effectively manage mule accounts. Source: Thai News Agency