The Bank of Thailand (BoT) yesterday decided to keep its policy interest rate, which has come into effect since early April last year, unchanged at 1.25 percent.
The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) during its meeting yesterday still saw several risk factors which could hamper the continuation of global economic recovery despite the country’s economy has improved satisfactorily since the last quarter of last year.
Paiboon Kittisrikangwan, the central bank’s assistant governor, on behalf of the MPC’s secretary, said although the global economic outlook has improved and some countries have begun …

Thailand’s largest energy firm PTT Plc on Monday reported its 2009 net profit of 59.5 billion baht, an increase of 15 percent or 7.8 billion baht from that of 2008.
In a letter to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), PTT’s president and chief executive officer Prasert Bunsumpun reported that the company’s consolidated net profit in 2009 rose to 59.55 billion from 51.7 billion baht a year earlier, resulting an increase in the earnings per share to 21.06 baht from 18.33 baht in 2008.
Last Friday, PTT had earlier submitted its financial …

Thailand’s national planning agency yesterday announced that the country’s economy grew 5.8 percent in the last quarter of last year, compared with the same period of 2008, after a prolonged contraction during three previous quarters.
According to Dr. Ampon Kittiampon, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), the overall economy for the entire 2009 however still contracted 2.3 percent as a result from the contraction of 7.1, 4.9 and 2.7 percent in the first three quarters of the year, when compared with the corresponding periods in 2008.
The NESDB, …

Thai Union Frozen Products Plc (TUF), Thailand’s leading manufacturer and exporter of frozen and canned seafood, recently announced that its net profit for last year had reached a record breaking 3.34 billion baht, an increase of 52 percent from that of 2008.
TUF’s president Thiraphong Chansiri on Monday disclosed that the huge increase in the company’s 2009 net profit was partly the result of a dramatic profit surge in the fourth quarter from 307 million baht in 2008 to 718 million baht last year.
The company’s annual sales in US dollars for …

 
On January 14, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has accepted an invitation of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) to deliver a keynote address to FCCT’s members and guests at a gathering at the Grand Ballroom, Intercontinental Bangkok.
Here is the full text of his address entitled “Meeting the Challenges of Change”:
 
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
It’s a great pleasure for me to be back here again in this forum. I suppose you want to make it as an annual forum. I wondered about that, I actually asked Khun Panitan (Dr. …

Mark J Arnold, the new president and CEO of Bank of Ayudhya
Bank of Ayudhya Plc (BAY) and GE Capital, the major shareholder of the Thai bank, recently appointed Mark J Arnold as new BAY president and chief executive officer, succeeding Tan Kong Khoon.
Mr. Mark J Arnold, who previously served as the CEO for GE Capital Global Banking in Southeast Asia and also a director on the BAY Board, is an accomplished GE leader with over fifteen years in the financial services sector in management roles in Asia and Europe.
BAY …