The government is confident local economy will grow by at least seven percent this year in spite of several negative factors. Meanwhile, the Thai stock exchange chief believes the index will break through the 1,000 point level again soon. Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankhiri said that even though the local economy has had to weather a series of bad news since earlier this year, he is confident that Thai GDP growth will range between seven and eight percent in 2010. Trairong cited high export growth and strong financial sector as reasons behind his confidence. However, he reckoned that Thailand will have to be watchful for global economic turmoil, particularly in Europe and the US, and the upcoming election in the country.

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Govt Confident of 7-8% 2010 GDP Growth

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.
Government consumption will likely contract due to the phase-out of consumption measures of the first fiscal stimulus package. Investment is expected to recover, as capacity utilization rises and deferred maintenance, machine replacements and limited expansion of existing plants take place. In addition, there are indications that construction investment, long subdued, may be picking up.

Chinese investment funds, Middle Eastern petrodollars — there is a huge amount of new money being channeled into the Asian capital markets.
Many Thai companies don’t even really need to be in the market, with only a limited need to raise capital.
Introduction The modern Thai Capital Market traces its origins back to the early 1960s. In 1961 Thailand implemented its first five-year National Economic and Social Development Plan to support the promotion of economic growth and stability as well as to develop the Kingdom’s standard of living. Following upon this, the Second National Economic and Social Development Plan (1967-1971) then proposed for the first time that an orderly securities market be established in order to mobilize additional capital for national economic development.

The creation of Thailand’s first officially sanctioned and regulated securities market was initially proposed as part of the Second National Economic and Social Development Plan (1967-1971). In outlining its proposal for the creation of a supervised securities market, the Second National Development Plan stressed that the market’s most important role would be to mobilize funds to support Thailand’s industrialization and economic development.