Thailand's tourism is affected by new coronavirus originated from China (Source: bangkokpost.com)Bangkok (VNA) – The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) of Thailand’s FinanceMinistry cut its 2020 economic growth forecast to2.8 percent from 3.3 percent projected earlier.
The ministry slashed its estimate for 2020export, a key growth driver, to a rise of just 1 percent from an earlier 2.6percent increase, Lavaron Sangsnit, head of the FPO said on January 29.
Despite the downgrades, the economy is still growing, he said, addingthat the major drivers will be private investment and large public investmentprojects.
TheThai Government on January 29 approved incentives to spur private investment of110 billion THB (about 3.56 billion USD) and add 0.25 percent to economicgrowth in 2020.
Themeasures include a corporate income tax deduction of 2.5 times expenditure onmachinery, a one-year tax exemption for importing new machinery, andspecial-rate loans offered by the Export-Import Bank of Thailand for exportersto alter their machinery for export.
The tax measures apply to new machinerypurchased from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2020. The 2.5-time tax deduction is notapplicable to leased machinery.
The measures are estimated to cost thegovernment 8.6 billion THB in forgone tax revenue, said Narumon Pinyosinwat, agovernment spokeswoman.
According to Narumon, the cabinet has approveda 350-million-THB budget to compensate Exim Thailand for the special interestrates.
The Thai Finance Ministry said the freshmeasures are essential to stimulate private investment and the local economythis year because of the uncertain global economy and the US-China trade war'simpact on the export sector.
Tourism,another key driver, is being affected by China's ban on allgroup tours because of a new coronavirus originated from Wuhan, China (2019-nCoV).
The TourismAuthority of Thailand expects the number of Chinese tourists, Thailand'sbiggest source of visitors, to fall by two millions this year from lastyear's nearly 11 million./.
VNA
