Online financial transactions on the rise in Thailand

BANGKOK, April 29 (TNA) - CIMB Thai Bank reports that online financial transactions among business operators in Thailand have kept rising over the past couple of years. CIMB Thai Bank Executive Vice President Paisan Thumpothong told journalists on Monday that there are now about 40 million items of electronic financial transactions a month among business operators in Thailand, totally worth about 2.5 trillion baht, a 10 per cent year-on-year increase, or 70-80 per cent of overall monthly financial transactions among business operators in the country. Paisan said that there are now about three million business operators in Thailand, 80 per cent of whom run small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Paisan acknowledged that the electronic financial transactions among business operators in Thailand have been, however, lower than those in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which have grown by 20-30 per cent on average over the past 4-5 years. Meanwhile, the Center for Economic and Business Forecasting, under Bangkok-based University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, forecast that the Thai economy should grow by 3.5-3.8 per cent year-on-year on average in 2019, proposing that the newly-elected Thai government implement measures to further boost the domestic tourism and property sectors in the second half of this year. (TNA)