Word: thailand
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...raft of loans (with interest rates as low as 3.5%) offered by Thailand's state-owned banks have helped her turn her fortunes around. She took out a personal loan, with which she consolidated her credit card debt; she used another to buy her car; and now she's applied for a mortgage to pay for the apartment. Soon she will open her own IT consultancy. Never mind that interest rates might rise, that the property market might fall, or that Wacharee earns a modest $1,500 a month. To her, and millions of other Thais, the good times...
...Bangkok has provided the perfect stage for Thaksin to flaunt his success and build his growing reputation as the most dominant leader in the region. Since taking office in February 2001, the billionaire telecom tycoon turned politician has presided over the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia. Last year Thailand's GDP rose 5.2%, and it's on track to expand 5.8-6.2% this year thanks to sizable increases in exports and domestic spending. The Thai stock market, meanwhile, has soared 67% so far this year, and property demand in the nation's cities has reached levels not seen since...
...home, Thaksin's programs have endeared him to the impoverished and, more recently, to a skeptical middle class once convinced that the PM's antidote for Thailand's domestic ills?including low interest rates, government-funded health plans, and cheap loans for the poor?was little more than populism masquerading as policy. "I never voted for Thaksin in the elections," says Bangkok-based advertising executive Kitti Chambundabongse. "I thought he was just another rich kid with a hunger for power. But he has proved to be so much more than that. He's given us the confidence we lacked...
...Thaksin's critics say some of that confidence might be misplaced. They fear the government has hooked consumers on easy credit and increased debt in the countryside while placing considerable strain on government coffers. "It's not sustainable in the long run," says Somchai Jitsuchon, research director at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), an independent economic think tank. "The concern is that when the government eventually stops pumping in money, whenever that is, the economy will collapse." Meanwhile, the country's economic success has diverted attention from Thaksin's more controversial policies, including this year's deadly crackdown...
...BUSINESS Thailand: The Thaksin Effect...