The Commerce Ministry plans to start the distribution of a new lot of palm oil supply to consumers by next Monday. At the same time, a special fair where discounted consumer goods will be put on sale to help consumers cope with expensive food prices has kicked off. The Public Warehouse Organization, or PWO, President Anukul Tamprasirt said that a new lot of state-sponsored bottled palm oil will be available on store shelves from February 28. A total of 15,000 tons of crude palm oil from local farms, which have been turned into cooking palm oil and bottled with a pink cap, are the latest in the governments efforts to help ease the oil shortage and alleviate Thai consumer burden.

Read the original here:
Ministry to Distribute Cheap Palm Oil Next Week

For 2009 as a whole, nonetheless, real GDP fell 2.3 percent despite a pick-up in consumption in the fourth quarter, external demand will be the main contributor to growth in the near term.
All in all, a more favorable external environment should help boost real GDP growth to 6.2 percent in 2010. After this year, slower growth in developed countries, emerging capacity constraints as capacity idled during the crisis is quickly put to use, and the weight of the ongoing political turmoil on new investment, should likely keep growth below Thailand’s historical average of 5.1 percent. On the whole, Thailand’s fiscal and financial picture remains solid

Pathom Yongvanich, a founding partner of PYI, says Asian markets have not only benefited from the inflow of international capital, but also from the growing sophistication of Asian investors themselves.
In part, this may reflect the greater volatility in earnings in smaller companies.

The modern Thai capital market can essentially be divided into two phases, beginning with “The Bangkok Stock Exchange” which was privately owned, followed by the establishment of “The Securities Exchange of Thailand”.

The inception of the Thai stock market began as far back as July 1962, when a private group established an organized stock exchange as a limited partnership. The group later became a limited company and changed its name to the “Bangkok Stock Exchange Co., Ltd.” (BSE) in 1963.
Despite its well-intended foundation the BSE was rather inactive. Annual turnover value consisted of only 160 million baht in 1968, and 114 million baht in 1969. Trading volumes continued to fall sharply thereafter to 46 million baht in 1970, and then 28 million baht in 1971. The turnover in debentures reached 87 million baht in 1972, but stocks continued to perform poorly, with turnover hitting an all time low of only 26 million baht. The BSE finally ceased operations in the early 1970s.

It is generally accepted that the BSE failed to succeed because of a lack of official government support and a limited investor understanding of the equity market.