Samak government narrowly passes policy evaluation: Leading think tank

Bangkok, June 24 (TNA) – The government led by Prime Minister Samak
Sundaravej has only narrowly passed a test in its implementation of
Thailand's economic policy as it still needs to have long-term measures to cope with inflation, according to the Thailand Development Research Institute.

Releasing findings from a research study on "The Evaluation of
Macro-economy Policies of Governments in Post-2006 Administrative Reform
Period," Somchai Chitsuchon, TDRI research director, said the current
government achieved a score of only 5 out of 10 points for its economic
policy implementation.

The government had experienced accelerated inflation, but failed to
respond with adequate long-term measures to rein in surging inflation,
TDRI said, which poses a grave threat to Thailand's economic growth.

The former government of Gen. Surayud Chulanont was given a score of 6-7
out of 10 points since its implementation of the macro-economy was
acceptable.

He said the Surayud government was reluctant to pursue the populist
policies initiated by the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, but gave
importance to taking the pulse and supervising the grass-roots economy
through its fiscal policy.

It had implemented a policy of higher budget deficits to maintain local
demand growth and curbed capital inflow and outflow by imposing a 30 per
cent reserve withholding measure to ease the baht's volatility to maintain
export growth.

However, the Surayud government had failed to boost investment and foreign
investor confidence since it pushed for laws that affected benefits of the
investors such as the Foreign Business Act and Retail Trade Act. (TNA)