BEIJING: China’s eastern metropolis of Hangzhou, among the country’s most thriving cities, on Thursday ( May 9 ) said it would lift all home purchase restrictions to shore up its real estate market, raising the prospect of other cities following suit. As of May 9, Hangzhou’s state will no longerContinue Reading
Bimal ThankachanBalaram Bhallavi and his family might finally get a proper roof over their heads.
For years, a tiled shanty in a sun-drenched village in India’s central Madhya Pradesh state has been home to Mr Bhallavi, his wife, and their four school-going children. A strip of a mud-floored foyer packs in a kitchen, a few plastic chairs, two rope beds and fraying clotheslines.
After a three-year wait, the Bhallavi family received 120,000 rupees ($1,445; £1,136) from a programme run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last year, allowing them to start building a new home.
More than 25 million homes have been built since 2016 under the rural public housing programme, called the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme). It is one of the more than 300 federal schemes that Mr Modi is leaning on to bolster support for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the general election as he eyes a record-equalling third term in office.
“Life is tough. But I am grateful to get money from the government to build my first house,” Mr Bhallavi, 42, told the BBC.
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After coming to power in 2014, Mr Modi has expanded India’s welfare programmes, targeting women and farmers in particular. This includes providing cooking gas, free grain, houses, toilets, piped water, electricity and bank accounts, and beefing up a long-running jobs guarantee programme.
Many benefits – pensions, subsidies, loans and scholarships – are delivered through cash transfers to bank accounts linked to biometric identity cards held by over a billion Indians. Giant posters of Mr Modi promoting these schemes as his personal “guarantees” dominate the landscape.
Mr Modi says his government has spent more than 34 trillion rupees ($400bn; £316bn) in the past decade, delivering direct cash benefits to low-income households and reaching over 900 million people. A yearly handout of 6,000 rupees to more than 110 million farmers constitutes one of the world’s largest cash transfer programmes. The transfers, officials claim, have cut corruption and slashed costs.
Economist Arvind Subramanian calls this Mr Modi’s “New Welfarism”, funding essential private items like toilets, rather than expanding public goods such as primary education and healthcare.
To be sure, “New Welfarism” stands apart from the traditional welfare models in Europe or the US.
While the US tends to favour smaller government and lower taxes, resulting in modest social transfers, European welfare states have been more generous. Social democracies such as those in Scandinavia have favoured higher social spending, supported by higher taxes.
Following Mr Modi’s cue, all parties in India have caught what Devesh Kapur of Johns Hopkins University calls the “virus of cash transfers with numerous schemes across states and political parties”.
The country’s state governments now operate more than 2,000 cash transfer programmes. “Every party in India knows that welfare matters for votes,” says Mr Kapur.
On a recent balmy morning in Bishnupur in West Bengal state, more than a hundred men, women and children gathered under a blue-and-white tent in a school courtyard. The event had a festive air about it.
Except this was a welfare delivery camp organised by the ruling Trinamool Congress party, led by Mamata Banerjee, a charismatic regional leader who has so far repelled Mr Modi’s BJP in the eastern state, home to over 100 million people.
Serving her third term, Ms Banerjee has prioritised welfare initiatives, running some three dozen schemes. These include free bicycles to get to school, scholarships for girls, financial aid, pensions for women, the elderly and the disabled, alongside universal health insurance.
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“We are giving welfare benefits here from birth to death,” Naziruddin Sarkar, a senior district official, said.
To ease the burden of travelling to distant government offices and dealing with unhelpful officials, Ms Banerjee’s government operates a benefits outreach programme called ‘Duare Sarkar’, meaning ‘government at your doorstep’. In the last three years alone, over 100 million people have registered for welfare benefits across different schemes at more than 650,000 such camps in 23 districts, according to official data.
The camp in Bishnupur offers a snapshot of the livelihoods of beneficiaries.
Shobha Mondal says she is using her widow’s pension to send her son to school. Monika Tithi uses three separate pensions – as a farmer, tribesperson and woman – to run a village grocery. Dipali Mondal, another widow, uses her pension to make and sell street-side snacks.
“When old or widowed women get money, they are respected more in their household. Pensions give them dignity,” Choten Dhendup Lama, a senior official, said.
Hundreds of miles away in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state, Y Laxmi pins her hopes on welfare to secure a brighter future for her children.
She lives with her deaf and speech-impaired husband, their two school-going sons, and her widowed mother-in-law. They rely on handouts totalling 6,000 rupees every month, from her husband’s disability and her mother-in-law’s widow’s pensions, to run the household.
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The state government under YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, leader of the YSR Congress Party, funds more than two dozen welfare programmes. They include aid for women’s self-help groups, even monthly payments to kidney patients for dialysis.
The potential game-changer is the Amma Vodi or Mother’s Lap scheme which provides support of 15,000 rupees annually, that mothers like Ms Laxmi get to send children to school. Her 17-year-old son, Vamsi, aspires to go to the Indian Institute of Technology, the country’s top engineering school.
“The money from the government will hopefully help in realising his dream,” Ms Laxmi said.
Mr Modi inherited India’s welfare system – free food, electricity and farm subsidies, rural housing and a rural jobs programme – and made it bigger.
Surveys show voters identify welfare programmes with the ruling parties, and that the number of households reporting using clean cooking fuel, toilets and women’s access to bank accounts has increased since Mr Modi came to power a decade ago. Distributing free bicycles to girls attending schools and colleges in various states has increased access to education.
But evidence of welfare translating to votes is more mixed. Victories in Indian elections aren’t solely determined by a single factor – caste, demography and religious identity are other key predictors of support for a party.
In 2019, a survey by polling group Lokniti-CSDS, found that the BJP had attracted more women voters in that year’s general elections, because of a rise in Mr Modi’s popularity and the impact of welfare schemes. Yet, a recent study in West Bengal concluded that “ideology and identity politics” outweighed welfare considerations in explaining the growing popularity of the BJP in the state.
Last year, amidst mounting allegations of corruption, the BJP lost elections in Karnataka despite a slew of welfare programmes. In Andhra Pradesh, a state known for its high social mobility, there’s scepticism whether welfare initiatives alone will suffice for Mr Reddy to win this summer, given a lack of jobs and poor infrastructure. Many grumble that welfare undermines work ethic.
“Leaders have benefited politically from the programmes. But over time, there are diminishing returns. Governance and other things begin to matter more,” Mr Subramanian said.
He also cautions against “competitive populism”, emphasising the strain of too many welfare schemes on public funds. India’s public debt – of federal and state governments – exceeds more than 80% of GDP, according to IMF data. Last December, in a report, the IMF flagged India’s “elevated public debt levels and contingent liability risks”.
“States are playing with fire,” said Mr Subramanian. “These schemes have become permanent entitlements. I don’t know how this will end.”
The jury is still out on whether ‘New Welfarism’ is hurting the exchequer. And experts also warn that these schemes aren’t enough to lift people out of poverty; investments in healthcare and education are also essential.
Then there are slippages in the much-hyped programmes. In Visakhapatnam, despite receiving ample handouts, Ms Laxmi’s family spends a fortune buying drinking water because of the lack of a water connection, and go to a neighbour’s apartment to use the toilet because they have none.
Also, inflation and falling incomes could often mean that welfare has its limits. Mr Bhallavi, who got a handout to build his house in Madhya Pradesh, earns 500 rupees daily making brick homes. Despite owning a farm, freak weather and high fertiliser prices have made farming unviable.
He said he would also need to top up the housing handout and borrow an additional 80,000 rupees at a 12% annual rate from the village money lender to construct his house, underscoring the continuing challenge of accessing affordable formal credit.
His wife, Lakhpati Bai, said that despite benefiting from subsidised cooking gas for two years, they struggle to refill their free cylinder due to rising gas prices. “We do most of our cooking on the clay stove,” she said.
In 2022, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah defended his government’s approach to welfare.
“We have given gas connections, power connections and it’s up to them [people] to pay their bills. We have made toilets for them but they have to maintain them… What we did was to provide help to upgrade their lives – this is empowerment,” Mr Shah told The Indian Express newspaper.
India spends less than 1% of its GDP on health, and spending on education has been slashed. Extending the free grain programme to over 800 million people until 2028 also points to a struggling rural economy. Mr Kapur believes cash transfers have “become an easy short-term solution and harder long-term solutions like investing adequately in agriculture, education and healthcare are being neglected”.
“All that requires institution building, which is a hard slog. So while there is much that is commendable about the New Welfarism, one worries that it might be at the cost of building systems that matter for long-term productivity and growth,” he said. Most Indians would agree.
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Economists had a year ago confidently predicted multiple cuts beginning in the late 2023, but it did n’t look that way. There was even a possibility of crisis.
Hopes of such a downturn have considerably diminished. The central bank is concerned that the prices is getting more and more persistent, and that a protracted greenback has weakened Korea’s fought, its currency. This unfortunate outcome of strong economic conditions in America and a decline in the Fed’s willingness to make first cuts have a ripple effect across global markets.
” I would n’t call it starting from scratch”, Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang- yong told reporters recently. ” But the situation has changed”.
This financial boom has no benefit to President Yoon Suk Yeol, either. Voters in Yoon’s hard-right laws drew a disproportionate blow to his party in parliamentary elections next month. Social scientists declared his principle over with only a few years left in his name because of how devastating the bloc was.
Investor- pleasant policies championed by Yoon, like strong cuts in funds- gains tax and union busting, may struggle to find traction. The typical Korean has yet to go through a better time. On either side of the divide, a consumer sentiment score that measures the dominance of optimism or pessimism, has remained undetermined.
Not necessarily translating to joy on the streets for Samsung Electronics and Stat Hynix. Higher levels of debt and worries about injustice have accompanied the country’s progress in new decades- and inspired Netflix’s hit Squid Game and, a dozen year’s earlier, the Oscar- successful film Parasite.
After the reshuffle, deputy finance minister Krisada apparently found herself dissatisfied with her new job.
PUBLISHED: 8 May 2024 at 17: 49
Srettha Thavisin, the deputy finance secretary, pleaded with Krisada Chinavicharana to reevaluate his resignation on Wednesday in an immediate visit from Prime Minister.
Mr. Srettha claimed to have called Mr. Krisada prior to the resignation letter so that the disgruntled secretary could consider the decision for a second time.
According to reports, Mr. Krisada apparently made the decision to leave because he believed he was unsatisfied with Pichai Chunhavajira’s recently appointed responsibilities.
The Public Debt Management Office is apparently headed by Mr. Krisada, a former government continuous director.
His appointment in the Pheu Thai-led coalition was made within the United Thai Nation Party’s social allotment last year.
Mr Krisada is not the only minister to experience slighted , in the new cabinet reshuffle. Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, the deputy prime minister, resigned last year due to his disappointment over losing the place he also held.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping next visited Europe, the world economy is now a much different area than it was five years ago.
Since 2019, a pandemic wreaked havoc, Joe Biden was sworn in as US president, Russia invaded Ukraine ( which Beijing tacitly backed ), German Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped aside, the US Federal Reserve carried out its most aggressive tightening cycle since the mid- 1990s and the European Union ( EU) is threatening new tariffs on Asia’s biggest economy’s exports.
With all of this, Xi has performed one of his most difficult balancing acts in his ten years in power. His swing through France, Serbia and Hungary comes as concerns about Beijing fueling Russia’s war machine collide with Xi’s need to tap Europe’s electric vehicle ( EV ) market, convince the West that Chinese “overcapacity” concerns are overdone and that China’s property crisis wo n’t be the cause of the next global financial crisis.
All of this while avoiding falling into a wider trade dispute with a crucial economic union due to China’s post-Covid recovery’s producing boom.
But there has been a significant change over the past five decades. When Xi last visited, China’s gross domestic product ( GDP ) was roughly the same size as the EU in US dollar terms. Today, it’s about 15 % bigger.
” The cyclical setting of Europe and China items to the business balance turning in China’s prefer”, says Cedric Gemehl, scientist at Gavekal Dragonomics.
At the same time, nevertheless, EU place demand is showing signs of recovery, which could be a benefit for China- made merchandise purchases.
The eu economy ultimately experienced some significant development in the first quarter of 2024, according to ING Bank economist Bert Colijn, following a long period of stagnation since the power crisis first started in the second quarter of 2022. A more robust power source and a significantly lower cost of ownership, which in turn lower inflation, make up the economy. Pay growth, in turn, has accelerated to make up for lost buying energy, which is now benefiting consumers”.
The EU has the upper hand, according to some economists, as China is under more US force, including restrictions on investments in island companies.
One great disclaimer: the EU’s 27 people are all over the place on China relationships. Some people complain about Beijing supporting Russia’s military business, people about China’s subsidies for EVs and clean energy industries, and still others about human rights concerns. All of the above are irritable to some.
It’s no accident that Xi’s timetable begins in France. Xi met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who may appear to be a fellow traveller, three days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a trip to China.
Macron’s need for Europe not to become a “vassal position” of the US makes him Xi’s best guess for cajoling the legislation course in Brussels. A significant overlap in the Venn diagram for Beijing and Paris is the argument that Macron made frequently and first for” proper freedom” from Biden’s Washington.
But challenges abound. One is Macron’s desire to protect France’s economy from a wave of low island products and exports of EVs and other natural products, which Brussels claims are funded by “unfair” authorities subsidies.
Another: Xi’s attempts to downplay China’s support for Vladimir Putin’s exploits in Ukraine ( Macron has floated the possibility of a French deployment there ).
” Xi will use his day with Macron to downplay China’s continued support for Putin’s war machine”, said Matt Geraci, an associate producer at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
Macron also is n’t thrilled by Xi’s choice of stops after France. According to reports from Western media outlets, Macron hoped to maintain the focus on Franco-Chinese ties rather than Serbia and Hungary, which are Russia-friendly.
Eastern European powers, including Macron and Scholz, are concerned that Xi’s time spent in pro-Kremlin lines, which he claims, violates broader EU legislation signals. The problem, of course, is the extent to which those prevents squander any kindness Xi may acquire in Paris.
Of course, Xi can be quite talented at pitting Western countries against one another in front of the wider EU union. Take, for example, the Germanic party’s April trip to China, notes Rolf Langhammer, top scientist at the Kiel Institute. ” Scholz largely followed the quarrels of European business”, Langhammer says.
” For instance, that low-cost Chinese upstream items offer both cost advantages for domestic business and encourage European consumers and processors to get environmentally friendly goods,” for instance. European businesses worry about reprisal if China is subject to import tariffs from the EU, he added.
These arguments, according to Langhammer, are natural from a macro perspective. However, they disregard the well-founded issues raised by the EU Commission regarding the anticipated surge of Chinese imports into the EU’s single market, which is currently the only available market in the world.
Of Xi’s vacation this year, Mathieu Duchatel, senior colleague at the Institut Montaigne, observes that “diplomacy only is unlikely to produce substantial outcomes in EU- China relations, as this explore may once again underscore. Those looking for a more realistic way to address trade, technology, and investment relations between the EU and China should turn their attention to the EU’s evolving economic security agenda.
According to Duchatel,” a lot still needs to be done.” Without economic intelligence, the difficulty of developing a European economic security agenda is demonstrated by the difficulty of establishing a supply chain resilience challenge. Successive crises have exposed weaknesses in Europe’s supply chains. Private companies and individual member states have primarily taken steps to reduce these risks, though.
The European Union’s efforts to address supply chain flaws have not yet produced significant results, according to Duchatel, despite its own economic intelligence capability. The European Commission must combine and analyze strategic information on a scale greater than that of individual member states and private entities in order to effectively address this challenge. The Commission would gain from all EU countries and European businesses by becoming a key player in supply chain resilience decisions.
In the interim, EU President , Ursula von der Leyen is , raising the temperature with a slew of trade restrictions against Xi’s Communist Party. In part, the effort aims to fulfill her commitment to improve Brussels ‘ impact on the world. Part is aimed at assessing the broader costs of China’s subsidies for EVs and its support for wind parks, solar manufacturers, railway firms and medical devices.
” We recognize what we see as the Chinese playbook” , , Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, tells Bloomberg. Knowing that you have been played teaches you to be much more watchful and take better actions.
Vestager says that” we are fully utilizing our trade tools and our tools that come with the foreign subsidies regulation to restore fair competition.”
The so-called “external subsidies regulations” are intended to protect against state funding that causes unfair competition for public tenders and deals to the detriment of European businesses.
Last month, Vestager’s team unveiled a subsidy investigation into China’s involvement in wind parks in Bulgaria, France, Greece, Romania and Spain.
The extreme uncertainty surrounding geopolitical tensions, according to economist Maartje Wijffelaars of Rabobank International, has made the year 2024 even more precarious.
” The main question is”, says Wijffelaars, “where will it end? Solar panels, wind turbines and medical devices have also’ recently’ caught Europe’s attention”. China is essential for its desperately needed energy transition, but also because it needs both as an export market and as a resource.
Yet Xi’s real challenge, let’s not forget, is China’s economy back home. At a time when youth unemployment is at its highest level, the cratering property sector is still putting downward pressure on deflation. Municipalities, meanwhile, face crushing debt loads, including US$ 9 trillion of so- called local government financing vehicles ( LGFVs ). That’s double the size of Germany’s economy.
The trade concerns will “undoubtedly” be a key discussion point, particularly since China is grappling with a slowing economy, says Leonie Allard, a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center.
The weak yen also makes Xi’s 2024 difficult to read. The currency’s 10 % drop this year is affording Tokyo a trade advantage that China is n’t enjoying. Xi’s economy could, of course, embolden the People’s Bank of China to push the exchange rate lower.
It would be a risky gambit, triggering a broader currency war. A decade of efforts to increase the yuan’s use in trade and finance may be slowed down by doing so.
Property developers who have a lot of offshore debt might face higher default risks as a result of a weaker yuan. In the run-up to November 5, China might become a bigger issue in the US election.
The key is addressing the real estate crisis, strengthening capital markets, boosting private sector size in comparison to state-owned companies, and creating bigger social safety nets to encourage more money and saving it.
Premier Li Qiang is back in Beijing as Xi rounds the European markets, leading efforts to improve China’s economic standing. and overcoming difficulties, albeit temporarily, that Xi might find appealing because of his isolation.
Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek
PUBLISHED: 7 Does 2024 at 04: 29
Following a disagreement over the central bank’s position on interest rates, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin objected to amending a law to limit the authority of the Bank of Thailand ( BoT ) governor.
Mr. Srettha said it had not crossed his mind when asked if the government would change the Bank of Thailand Act to restrain the BoT president’s authority.
” It is the Finance Ministry’s process to handle the matter. Never did I request that the BoT government retire. He always felt any pressure. But I do n’t know what will happen in the future. You must ask the Finance Minister]Pichai Chunhavajira ]”, Mr Srettha said on Monday.
” I do n’t want to talk to the BoT governor directly,” he said. He suggested that the State Enterprise Police Office of the Finance Ministry does work with the government to integrate with the BoT. I have acted on his suggestion”, the excellent minister said.
” I am not in discord with the BoT government. I am fighting against people’s hunger. High interest rates contribute to hunger. That’s all I may suggest. Politicians, MPs, government officials and the BoT all have good purposes for the land, but we approach problems differently”, Mr Srettha said.
He had previously stated that he would meet with the newly elected finance minister to explore ways to integrate and collaborate with the central bank more effectively.
Earlier, Mr Srettha stood by Pheu Thai head Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who recently criticised the main company’s stance on interest rates.
Ms. Paetongtarn criticized the BoT, which has been under constant strain to lower interest rates, at an event held last Friday at Pheu Thai’s office.
She said the laws, which prevents the Bank of Thailand from being governed by the state, is a issue and a big obstacle to financial problems.
According to Ms. Paetongtarn, the nation has heavily relied on fiscal policy to stabilize its business, which has led to a high public debt and finances deficit.
” If the BoT does n’t understand and cooperate with the government]in its efforts to tackle economic problems], we ca n’t ]win ]”, she said.
In an effort to boost the economy, the government has repeatedly urged the BoT to think about changing its interest charge legislation and lowering the standard rate. The public is being harmed and the current rate of 2.5 %, which is a 10-year high, is further compounded by Mr. Srettha’s earlier assertions.
Let’s face it: every senator aspires to the Fed’s authority to set interest rates. Let’s get real before we discuss the ideas Trump officials are hatching to abandon that authority.
Donald Trump would n’t be the first to attempt to snag some of that power. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon were his forebears in the creation of the initiative.
Yet those president who sat silently while the central bank raised or declined to raise interest rates certainly winced. High interest rates may lose votes. No leader wants them.
Neither would farmers, ranchers and various business loans. If taking away the Fed’s independence keeps interest rates low, then, is n’t that a good thing?
Let’s start by acknowledging that the Fed is n’t completely independent. Congress created it in 1913 and what Congress does, Congress can remove. In 1978, Congress changed the Fed’s going orders, mandating that it do peak work as well as price security.
Also, elected leaders determine who serves on the Federal Reserve Board. The Senate confirms the governors ‘ appointments, and the senator nominates them.
But previously confirmed the rulers serve 14- yr terms, which gives them a substantial degree of independence. They can only be removed for a specific reason, and not because the leader or Congress disagree with their plan choices.
And that’s not the Fed’s just protection from elections. The Federal Open Market Committee, the agency that determines monetary policy, has another structure. The FOMC’s seven administrators are elected by private businesses that are Federal Reserve System members, and they are presided over by five president of the 12 Federal Reserve institutions.
Politicians can and do show their differences with the available- market committee’s decisions, occasionally in warmed terms. But that’s all they can accomplish, aside from the nuclear option, to drastically alter the entire central banks program. Our financial politicians have the freedom to make controversial decisions without having to lose their jobs.
Why does the US protect its social decision-makers from political meddling on this basis? Often high interest rates are important, without them inflation may spin out of control.
But even when they are needed, imposing them requires a degree of political confidence not ordinarily required of those who must face the public every two, four, or six years. Better to assign their 14-year words to appointed professionals.
It’s not just the US that has come to this conclusion. For the same grounds, the majority of nations have quasi-uniform key banks.
What Trump’s officials are allegedly considering falls under the nuclear-options umbrella.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s Fed writer Nick Timiraos, the president had been consulted on attention- level decisions. White House assessment of final restrictions would be done. The Treasury do monitor the Fed’s choices regarding emergency lending.
Oh, and Trump did take Jerome Powell’s place before his 2026 expression as head of the Fed. Powell was appointed chairman by Trump, but he expressed disappointment at the Fed’s subsequent rate increases during his administration.
Unless Congress went on, the propriety of all this is controversial. There would almost certainly been dispute. It would n’t be surprising if the courts derailed the proposals.
The first step may likely be in the financial industry. They’d put a meltdown. To know why, it’s good to join four information:
Investors see reckless economic policy as a barrier because of the Fed’s independence. They worry that even when economic conditions demand that interest rates be set at a high, politicians will continue to set them small. Fugitive inflation is a serious danger, that is, if lawmakers are setting interest charges.
Odds are higher, in other words, that an attack on the Fed’s independence had really cause a lengthy- term bond selloff.
This is why these proposals are n’t a good thing, even for business loans. They fail to account for the crucial role that the businesses play in determining interest rates. The White House would probably remove them due to financial chaos. For producers and landowners, there’s also the problem that when bond yields jump higher, but would mortgage rates.
According to Timiraos, the proposals Trump’s advisors are plotting have n’t yet received the candidate’s blessing. It will be better for the economy, owners, the national debt and business loans if they never do.
Past lifelong Wall Street Journal Asia journalist and editor , Urban Lehner , is writer professor of DTN/The Progressive Farmer.
This , content,  , initially published on May 3 , by the latter news business and then republished by Asia Times with authority, is © Copyright 2024 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved. Follow , Urban Lehner , on , X @urbanize
PUBLISHED: 5 May 2024 at 18: 01
MAHA SARAKHAM: The state is stepping up efforts to address the country’s casual debt, drought and cocaine issues, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said in Maha Sarakham’s Phayakkhaphum Phisai neighborhood on Sunday.
At a party’s coordination center’s event in the northern province, the prime minister, who was wearing a red shirt, addressed Pheu Thai supporters on stage.
He assured them that the guaranteed third quarter of the government’s online budget handout program would be implemented.
He claimed that low-income people still face a significant issue with casual loan.
” The government has previously held a meeting]to seek answers ]”, he said. ” Anyone who has a debt problem has been urged to seek help from regional authorities under the president’s debt negotiation programme”, he said.
According to the Interior Ministry, 153, 400 people signed up to the president’s debt settlement program between Dec 1 to Feb 29, with payments totalling about 12 billion ringgit.
As of March 29, the Department of Provincial Administration said 41, 686 had entered the bill renewal operation, while 25, 408 had previously settled their debt with lenders.
He continued, claiming that substance abuse has been caused by debts issues.
The government has recognized the extent of the drug issue. He claimed that we have seized drug-related goods and increased border security to stop smuggling.
The PM claimed that there are numerous drug users in nearby villages who need treatment for addiction and should be treated differently from pirates.
He said,” I’ve given security organizations, the public health department, and the justice department instructions to address the issue and promote their social reintegration.”
According to Mr. Srettha, the rainfall has also had an impact on local producers and the agricultural industry, and he has requested that the Interior Ministry and the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry make sure there are enough water supplies for the farmers who have been affected by the drought.
” These three issues — casual debts, drought and drug — are national interests. The primary minister reassured the public that all work would be made quickly.
Just wants BoT to hear, it says
PUBLISHED: 5 May 2024 at 05: 19
The ruling Pheu Thai Party has denied interfering with the Bank of Thailand ( BoT )’s independence, despite criticism of the bank’s interest rate stance by leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Pheu Thai head Paetongtarn Shinawatra spoke at an occasion held on Friday at Pheu Thai’s office about the BoT’s refusal to veer off from his ongoing pressure to lower interest rates.
The BoT’s independence from the government was criticized by Ms. Paetongtarn, who claimed that efforts to solve a number of pressing financial issues were being hampered by its democracy. She said that the Bank of Thailand ( BoT )’s independence from the government is a problem and a major obstacle to solving economic problems.
According to Ms. Paetongtarn, the nation has heavily relied on fiscal policy to stabilize its business, which has led to a high public debt and finances deficit. ” If the BoT does n’t understand and cooperate with the government]in its efforts to tackle economic problems], we ca n’t ]win ]”, she said. She claimed that since the country’s military coups, opportunities have been lost for nearly 20 years, but Pheu Thai may change its course before the next election.
In order to promote economic growth, the government has repeatedly urged the BoT to think about changing its interest charge plan and lowering the standard interest level. The public is being harmed and the current rate of 2.5 %, which is a 10-year high, may be to blame, according to Mr. Srettha, who previously claimed this.
Rinthipond Varinvatchararoj, a lieutenant Pheu Thai secretary- common and listing- MP, said the authorities was never trying to tamper with the BoT.
The Pheu Thai head merely desired the government to hear their point because it is crucial for maintaining consistency in macroeconomic and economic policies, according to Ms. Rinthipond. In theory, the central banks has democracy in pursuing its policy. But, it also has the responsibility to ensure its policy is in line with the government’s financial situation. She added that it should also pay attention to the governmental policy of the state.
Sanphet Boonyamanee, a Democrat MP for Songkhla, said the government may be happy a legislation is in place to ensure the BoT’s democracy. ” In theory, a central bank has maintain economic and financial stability. According to Mr. Sanphet, it needs to be kept from influencing any state and its freedom kept at bay.
Wicharn Khuptiphongkun, a business from Indonesia, wants to throw the hat in the band for the Senate.
In an effort to use his real estate knowledge to promote his town, a successful business from Nakhon Ratchasima has expressed interest in politics.
Sirayos Co Ltd. managing director Wicharn Khuptiphongkun stated to the Bangkok Post that he is interested in running for president because he believes the people would benefit from his real estate expertise.
His business has been able to overcome hurdles without incurring debts, he claims, despite the various issues that have occurred over the years, such as the Persian Gulf War and the Covid- 19 pandemic.
” My principle is that we should know which]real estate ] location is suitable to our customers. According to Mr. Wicharn, “each project has been designed to enable them to travel more easily and affordably.”
” I used to sit in a commercial building, so I understand consumers ‘ thoughts. We try to solve people’s issues and keep them happy.
Our clients may be able to travel to work in an hour, according to the idea. We look for spots near electric carriages, within 600 to 800 yards, at an affordable price. Without being concerned about the size of our companies, we do not seek out huge plots of land.
Politics is essential for everyone’s life because it involves how to use limited resources to bring maximum benefit to the population, according to Mr. Wicharn, 66.
” I graduated with a Master’s degree in Political Science at Ramkhamhaeng University. Of course, I am interested in politics, but my job and role in the past meant I was unable to communicate a political view, “he said.
” But straight then, my responsibilities have eased, which means I have more time to check politics more carefully.
” It’s obvious that politicians everywhere has its own problems that need to be resolved. But, how can we remedy problems? Our plan will be obstructed by doing something very serious. Therefore, I believe that effective politics may include ethics and agree to” shared common benefits” as much as possible.
When asked about connections between politics and the real estate sector, Mr. Wicharn said that good politics may strive to improve people’s living conditions, including travel arrangements, which is one of the fundamental tenets of area and economic growth.
I was born in the Bua Yai city of Nakhon Ratchasima and have worked in the real estate industry for more than 20 years.
He cited as an example how adequately resourced assets could be used to further develop Nakhon Ratchasima. ” The province’s entire economy will grow, and it will bring enjoyment to everyone. We may ensure the success of every city”, he said.
” The province’s growth is admirable, but we must spread growth throughout the state. He continued,” Development must not be done only in the city, or Bangkok may cause issues.”