Key View

• Growing headwinds to the economy resulting from the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak in China, delays to the 2020 budget, and the impact from drought, will see the Bank of Thailand maintain its dovish stance.
• Against the backdrop of still-low inflation and low-to-negative real rates across emerging markets we believe there is

Key View

• The passing of Thailand’s 2020 fiscal year budget highlights the growing importance of government stimulus in supporting the economy.
• The delayed passing will mean the boost from planned increase in expenditure is heavily weighted to the latter quarters of the FY2019/20 (October-September).
• The package supports the country’s

Key View: Companies operating in the Thai sugary beverage sector have faced a decision of reformulating their products or staying true to their brand recipes and face a sugar tax. With the second phase of Thailand’s excise tax on sugary drinks now live we have revised up our sales forecasts within the soft beverage sector, as we believe in the

Key View

• We have maintained our 2019/20 rice production forecasts for Thailand despite the recent drought, as only a small proportion of rice-growing regions were affected.
• That said, concerns of tighter supply has put upward pressure on Thai export prices, posing upside risk to our CBOT rice price forecasts.
• Meanwhile, import demand remains

Key View

• Stagnation in the revenues of traditional operators underscores a changing pay-TV landscape that is increasingly leaning toward streaming platforms and services.
• Both local and regional players are investing heavily into the procurement and production of localised content.

Consumers in Thailand are increasingly moving towards

Key View

• Weaker domestic demand dynamics in Thailand has prompted us at Fitch Solutions to revise down our growth outlook slightly.
• Monetary and fiscal stimulus will provide some support to growth but will be unlikely to feed-through fully until 2020.
• We have revised down our headline growth forecasts to 2.8% and 3.5% in 2019 and 2020, from

Key View

• The Bank of Thailand (BoT)’s decision to cut its key policy rate at its August meeting does not signal the start of an aggressive easing cycle in our view.
• We at Fitch Solutions view the cut as an attempt to offset Thai baht strength and support the slowing economy over the coming quarters, and as such, expect the BoT to maintain an