1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,635.36 points, increased 10.97 points or 0.68% with a trading value of 79 billion baht. The analyst stated that the increase was mainly due to a buying pressure from big-cap stocks after the MPC raised interest rate by 25 basis points as expected, while signalling for better economic recovery in 2023-24.
2) Eurozone inflation remains high at 10% in November
Inflation in the eurozone rose 10% in November, slightly below a 10.6% growth in October and 10.3% forecast by economists. Still, inflation at 10% is a high figure that would pressure the European Central Bank to take another step to deal with rising prices. Energy and food costs remain major contributors to this high inflation.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said earlier this week that the central bank expected to raise rates further to the level that would ensure inflation to return to the 2% target in a timely manner.
The central bank estimated earlier that annual headline inflation will reach 8.1% this year and 5.5% in 2023.
3) Thai central bank raises interest rate by 25bps to 1.25%
The Bank of Thailand announced an interest rate hike by 25 basis points for a third straight meeting in an attempt to contain above-target inflation, while trying to cushion the impact on its economic recovery amid increasing global headwinds.
The Monetary Policy Committee on November 30, 2022, unanimously agreed to raise the one-day repurchase rate by 0.25 percentage point to 1.25% at its final review of the year. The decision was in line with a Reuters poll.
4) Thai manufacturing production falls nearly 4% in October
The Office of Industrial Economics (OIE) said the Manufacturing production index (MPI) of October 2022 was 93.89, decreased 3.71% from the same period of the previous year. In the first ten months of 2022 (Jan-Oct) MPI averaged an expansion by 2.17%.
The Capacity Utilization Rate (CAP-U) of October 2022 was 59.91%, decreased from 63.44% in September 2022, which affected in the first ten months of 2022, for an average of 63.06%.
