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Thailand to sell rice,
rubber to China
Commerce Minister Gen Chatchai Sarikulya said negotiations at the
ministerial level are underway for Thailand to sell 2 million tonnes of rice
and 200,000 tonnes of natural rubber to China on a government-to-government
basis.
Sales will be made to China’s state enterprise Cofco and delivery will be
made in 2015-2016, said Gen Chatchai, adding that sales will be conducted
with Cofco only for the purpose of transparency.
Gen Chatchai said the plan to sell rice and rubber to China is being made
following requests to Chinese government leaders to buy more agricultural
products from Thailand during the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Summit held in Beijing last week.
Company representatives arrived in Thailand Wednesday to discuss ways to
invest in the rubber industry in Thailand, while trade associations will
discuss China’s plan to boost its investment in Thailand and enlarge Thai
exports there, he said.
Gen Chatchai said he met farmer representatives to discuss rice strategy and
prices after finding that rice contained high moisture as the rainy season
is about to end.
Rice exporters and millers bought rice at prices much below the target, said
Gen Chatchai.
Concerned parties will be invited for talks in future in order to solve the
problem, he said.
Differing reports on rice in storage is not necessarily a problem, Gen
Chatchai said. The Commerce Ministry reported 18 million tonnes stored,
while a subcommittee inspecting the former government’s rice-pledging
program said there were 19.2 million tonnes on hand, but Gen Chatchai said
the difference probably resulted from inspection at the different times.
The ministry will ask the National Rice Policy Committee to resume sale of
warehoused rice without a negative impact on domestic rice prices, he said.
(MCOT)
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BoT says Thai economy
remains strong
Despite a slight increase in non-performing loans (NPLs)
by commercial banks and high household debt levels, Thailand’s general
economy remains stable, a spokesman for the Bank of Thailand (BoT) said last
week.
Spokesman Chirathep Senivongs Na Ayudhya said the public should not worry
about an announcement made earlier by rating agency Standard and Poor’s on
Thailand’s economic growth, saying it could be unstable and negatively
affect financial institutions.
The central bank, he said, asserts that the country’s economy is still
stable and financial institutions are performing normally even as
nonperforming loans during the third quarter stood at 2.34 percent, up
slightly from 2.15 percent at the end of 2013, which was considered as “not
too high and steady,” Chirathep said.
Commercial bank reserves for possible NPLs at the end of September stood at
135 percent, displaying their financial strength, he said.
Household debt, which stood at 83.5 percent of gross domestic product at the
end of the second quarter this year, although high, was not a major factor
impacting the country’s economic recovery, he said.
But it should serve as a warning to the government not to stimulate the
economy through more borrowing. There are signs that household debt has
declined since the end of 2013 and it would continue to fall with the
country’s economy improvement in 2015.
Chirathep said the BoT’s Monetary Policy Committee still has no plan to ease
its policy rate as it must consider the country’s latest economic figures
when it meets for the last time this year on December 17. (MCOT)
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