If approved, they will be forwarded to the National Economic and Social Development Council, said minister Saksayam Chidchob on Tuesday (March 3).

Topping the PPP projects due for consideration are the Orange Line mass transit system ( Bangkunon-Minburi) worth Bt235.320 billion; the Purple Line mass transit system (Taopoon-Rat Burana), costing Bt124.791 billion; the Nakhon Pathom-Cha-Am highway, Bt79 billion and the Bt4.942 billion Samui cruise terminal.

He added that the ministry has a budget of Bt208.317 billion for fiscal 2020, which will be fully disbursed within September.

The Department of Highways plans to disburse Bt108.124 billion, the Department of Rural Roads Bt45.881 billion and the Department of Airports Bt5.48 billion.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies face an unprecedented challenge as the epidemic that started in China threatens to become a global pandemic. Growth in fuel consumption could be wiped out this year and prices have just had their biggest weekly drop since the global financial crisis.

To secure a supply cut that could stop the rout, the group must overcome Russian resistance while also grappling with the risks of bringing together delegations from 23 nations as the deadly disease continues to spread. One of those members, Iran, has a serious outbreak at home affecting top government officials.

There’s an “extremely grave situation” in the oil market, Algerian Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab said on Tuesday, according to state-run Algeria Press Service. “Algeria calls for a concrete, credible, cohesive and rapid action.”

In an effort to limit potential contagion, OPEC will take the unprecedented step of blocking journalists from entering its Vienna headquarters during the meeting, while also seeking to limit the size of members’ delegations to “a bare minimum,” according to a statement. The cartel’s meetings typically attract a contingent of hundreds of officials, reporters, TV crews, analysts and consultants from around the world.

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The OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee gathered in the Austrian capital on Tuesday to reappraise the impact of the epidemic. At their previous meeting in February, they recommended a production cut of 600,000 barrels a day, but the outbreak has worsened since then.

“The recommended 600,000 barrel-a-day additional cut for the second quarter of 2020 will be seen as too little,” Mohammad Darwazah of consultant Medley Global Advisors said in a note. “It is clear that the group is mulling a deeper production pullback.”

OPEC+ has been struggling to manage the price impact from the U.S. shale boom since it was formed in late 2016. It launched a new round of supply curbs at the start of this year, removing about 2.1 million barrels a day from the market. Any cut agreed on this week would deepen that reduction.

The group’s experts are looking at five scenarios for demand, said one delegate, who asked not to be named because the talks were private. Those numbers will determine whether the previous recommendation for the size of the cut is maintained, said another delegate.

With flights canceled in Europe, schools closed in Japan, towns quarantined in Italy and a rising death toll from Iran to Washington state, the coronavirus crisis has gone global, and with it, its impact on energy demand. For only the fourth time in almost 40 years, oil consumption may not grow at all in 2020, according to a growing minority of traders, investors and analysts.

That possibility is reflected in crude, which slumped 16% in New York last week, the biggest drop since December 2008. The market has rebounded somewhat, but at about $48 a barrel on Tuesday prices remain too low for most of the cartel’s members to balance their budgets.

“The coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity,” the Fed said in a statement to announce the move, its first such inter-meeting reduction since October 2008 during the financial crisis.

U.S. stocks were higher after the announcement, while the 10-year Treasury yield touched 1.08%. Fed funds futures are pricing more than a percentage point of central bank rate reductions for 2020, including another quarter-point cut in the first half of the year.

The central bank also said it is “closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook and will use its tools and act as appropriate to support the economy.”

The Fed’s action could presage a wave of easing from other central banks around the world although those in the euro-area and Japan have less scope to follow with rates already in negative territory.It came hours after Chairman Jerome Powell and finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations said they would “use all appropriate policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable growth and safeguard against downside risks.”

The vote for the emergency cut to a range of 1% to 1.25% was unanimous. The Fed also said in the statement that the “fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong.”

The decision came amid public pressure for a cut by President Donald Trump, whose stewardship of the economy is central to his reelection campaign this year. Following today’s shift he called for more, demanding in a tweet that the Fed “must further ease and, most importantly, come into line with other countries/competitors. We are not playing on a level field. Not fair to USA.”

U.S. central bankers were scheduled to gather March 17-18 in Washington. Tuesday’s decision was the first time it had cut by more than 25 basis points since 2008.

The reduction marks a stark shift for Powell and his colleagues. They had previously projected no change in rates during 2020, remaining on the sidelines during the election year, after lowering their benchmark three times in 2019 to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%.

As recently as last week, some officials, including Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, had indicated they thought it was too soon to respond to the virus. They pledged to monitor the situation, but argued monetary policy was already easy and the fundamentals of the economy strong with unemployment near a 50-year low.

But as the number of reported cases of the virus rose around the world in recent days and the U.S. reported its first fatality, traders increasingly bet the Fed would step in. Powell seemed to cement that view with a promise on Friday to “act as appropriate,” which lent some support to stocks.

Lower rates do little for factories lacking needed materials from abroad and are unlikely to spur consumers to shop if they’re scared of infection. But they should support consumer and business sentiment as well as ease financial conditions by making debt payments easier to manage and by calming market volatility.

Powell has staked his chairmanship on sustaining the expansion, words he has used to describe the essential mission of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s rate-setting panel. Despite the limited ability of monetary policy to ease the impact of a public health emergency, the rate cut could support consumer and business sentiment. Lawmakers are working on a $7.5 billion virus response bill, another reminder that critical fiscal policy can take weeks to move through Congress.

One lesson Fed officials will take away from this moment is how rapidly their policy space is used up in a crisis.

Total cuts of one percentage point this year, which several Wall Street firms are forecasting, would bring the bottom range of the Fed policy rate down to 0.5%. If the virus impact is worse than expected, or if the economy is hit by a separate shock, the policy rate could strike zero.

At that point, Fed officials are left with unconventional tools, such as purchases of longer-dated Treasuries — known as quantitative easing. The effectiveness of such tools when longer-term rates are already low remains to be seen.

The Fed is in the midst of a review of its tool kit to achieve its goal of maximum employment and stable prices. They are considering policies such as outcome-based forward guidance, where a policy change would be linked to some tangible metric such as achieving an inflation rate, and yield curve caps.

Wherever the discussion lands, the virus has highlighted the need for better fiscal and monetary policy coordination in a time of exceptionally low interest rates, says Julia Coronado, the president of MacroPolicy Perspectives.

The Fed is “carrying the domestic burden and the global burden” because they are one of the few central banks in developed economies that still has rates to some degree above zero, Coronado said. “The fiscal policy response has been lacking. There are people that are going to be struggling to pay their bills and certain workers are going to lose incomes. This is the shock that needs to be insured and we are really behind the curve.”

Initially, markets dove after G-7 leaders failed to reassure investors they would be taking action soon to boost their economies. But then at 10 a.m., the Federal Reserve announced it would slash the benchmark U.S. interest rate by half a percentage point, sending the markets into a short-lived surge.

The Dow initially climbed 300 points off the news. But within 30 minutes, the index swerved 200 points back into the red, then popped up 140 points. The Standard and Poor’s and Nasdaq composites also swung.

The Fed, whose leaders voted unanimously in favor of the rate cut, has not made an emergency reduction like this since 2008. The move would reduce the current interest rate to just below 1.25%, down from 1.75%.

The volatility carried through almost every point of Tuesday morning, with futures initially pointing upwards and then staging a U-turn. Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers held a call to discuss how to respond to the outbreak. But a statement released afterwards contained no specific actions, prompting the futures drop.

“Alongside strengthening efforts to expand health services, G-7 finance ministers are ready to take actions, including fiscal measures where appropriate, to aid in the response to the virus and support the economy during this phase,” the finance ministers and central bank governors said in a statement.

The whirlwind morning came just after Wall Street staged an explosive rally on Monday, shaking off its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq composite all exited correction territory, and the Dow rose nearly 1,300 points, closing up 5.1%, its largest percentage gain since March 2009.

Markets appeared more stable in Europe. Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed roughly 2.25%, , and Germany’s DAX rose 2.8%. Asian stocks dipped, with Japan’s Nikkei down 1.2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng essentially flat.

Arturo Bris, professor of finance and lead of the IMD World Competitiveness Center at the IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, said that markets and companies could hopefully come out of the outbreak with crisis response plans “that prevent the overreaction and panic we’re in now — and help keep markets and economies stable even during the unthinkable.”

“The virus, of course, is serious, but this is not the end of the world,” Bris said. “In addition to making preparations for a pandemic, they also need to be planning for what comes after a pandemic, when things return to normal.”

For weeks now, coronavirus has caused a rupture in global supply chains, particularly for goods manufactured and produced in China, where economic activity has largely stalled. And the longer fears swirl around the virus’ spread, shaky consumer confidence could push Americans to rein in their spending. The world economy is now expected to have its worst year of growth since 2009, according to numerous forecasts. And Goldman Sachs is predicting no growth in the second quarter, which would be the worst quarter the country has experienced in six years.

“Stocks are likely to continue reacting to ebbs and flows in the news cycle, and it is too early to tell if Monday’s 1,300 point rally in the Dow means a bottom is in place for stocks,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, based in Newport Beach, California, with over $2.25 billion in assets under management. “Economic damage has certainly been done, but how severe and for how long, remains to be seen.”

Early Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump continued to call on the Fed to cut rates. Interest rates are already low, leaving little room for further reductions in the event of a recession. Still, Trump often attacks the central bank and Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not going far enough to heat up the economy.

“Our Federal Reserve has us paying higher rates than many others, when we should be paying less,” Trump tweeted. “Tough on our exporters and puts the USA at a competitive disadvantage. Must be the other way around. Should ease and cut rate big. Jerome H. Powell led Federal Reserve has called it wrong from day one. Sad!”

In the United States, the number of confirmed cases surged past 100 in 15 states, with six people dead. There are at least 18 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Washington state, with evidence suggesting the virus may have spread undetected there for weeks.

Roughly 70 countries have reported incidences of the virus, and new countries are added to the list each day. In South Korea, the number of confirmed cases exceeded 5,000, the highest outside China. Government officials were placed on 24-hour alert, and health tests expanded in virus-hit areas. China, the epicenter of the outbreak and still the worst-hit country, announced its lowest number of new cases since late January.

Delivering his keynote speech at a seminar hosted by the Pheu Thai Party on Tuesday (March 3) , Virabongsa said the sagging economy would likely continue for another five years and poor performance of the Thai economy was mainly due to impact of the global economic slowdown on Thai exports, while the Covid-19 outbreak hastened the decline.

Business sentiment plunges to lowest level in a decade

The government, he said, lacks confidence in managing the economy as it has no credibility in the eye of the global communities and seen as a dictatorship.

“Over all, Thailand is facing a multi-crisis on the economic, political and rule of law fronts,” Virabongsa noted.

He said the Thai economy depended to a large extent on export performance which accounted for 70 per cent of gross domestic product. Those who say that exports are not the most important aspect of the Thai economy do not understand its structure, he added.

Virabongsa said he had heard the Deputy Prime Minister’s comment that exports were not important as the country could boost domestic demand to revive the economy. “The statement demonstrates ignorance of the one who uttered the words”.

He may have outwitted the military but he could not deceive people in the financial market and the manufacturing sector,” said Virabongsa in an apparent reference to Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak who oversees the economic policies of General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s government.

If there were no exports, no foreign tourists, national income will drop to 30 per cent of the current level, he pointed out.

Virabongsa also turned to criticise the Bank of Thailand. The market determines the dollar value of Thai export and import products but Thailand could determine the baht value of those products via exchange rate management, he noted.

The central bank governor, however, did not seem to have sufficient knowledge of the matter as he often said that exports were not affected by the changes in baht value, Virabongsa said.

“If I were the prime minister, I would fire the central bank governor one way or another, despite the Bank of Thailand being an independent agency ” he said.

He claimed that both the government and central bank were ignorant while working together.

Thailand could progress to a developed country status but was stalled by the military coup in 2014 , as Malaysia moved ahead, he said.

The global communities oppose military rules as seen in the refusal of several economic blocs on entering free trade agreements with Thailand, he said.

“Our leader could not participate in free negotiations as he has the title of a general before his name,” he pointed out , adding that even Myanmar now has a civilian government after long periods of military rules.

“Since our political system is not in line with a civilised country, it has always been an obstacle for Thailand to achieve an advance country status. We aimed to become the fifth tiger of Asia but military coup has pulled the country back,” he said while stating that ” political system does matter to economic progress”.

The government did not fully understand importance of the exchange rate and let the baht surged to become the strongest currency in the world last year. With the government not paying much attention to Thai exports, the country is lagging behind other Asean nations and the country’s export value is expected to face negative growth this year, he warned.

Generally, the Thai economy cycle is 10 years, but with the military having managed the the economy for the past five years, the next five years would likely see an economic recession, he said.

While the SET Index and local stock prices have dropped to their lowest levels in four years, they could further drop next month to the lowest points in five or six years as the country has yet to see light at the end of tunnel, he said.

If the current government were elected, it would have been toppled but it has remained in office, thanks to the power of the gun, he said.

Current economic weakness is different from those we have experienced. In the past, economic woes were mainly caused by the country’s failure to export enough products while importing a substantial amount of foreign goods, resulting in deficits of current and capital accounts.

However, Thailand now faces a larger contraction in imports than exports, resulting in trade and current accounts surplus. “The economy is weakening but the baht is strengthening ,” he said.

The situation invited fund managers to speculate on Thai debentures , leading to historic low yield of government bonds. The lower yield of long-term bond maturity than short-term interest rate indicates that the Thai economy will continue to register declining growth rates for many years to come, he said.

Virabongsa does not believe government spending will boost the local economy after the Bt3.2 trillion annual budget has recently been approved.

Government spending accounts for only 18 per cent of gross domestic product and capital spending is just 20 per cent of total outlays, he explained while playing down

the effect of the ” Eat, Shop and Spend” stimulus scheme.

The move would help strengthen its capital structure in the long term and support its business expansion in the future.

The company’s first subordinated perpetual debentures have been assigned a credit rating of ‘A-‘ by Tris Rating Co Ltd on February 27, 2020 while the company was rated ‘A+’ with ‘stable’ outlook.

The coupon of the debentures has been set at 5.00 per cent per annum for the first five years with semi-annually payment. It has been expected to offer by the end of April this year.

The company believes this is a good time to organise the financial structure and get the company’s capital ready for its future investment plans in line with its Greener & Smarter Strategy, said Somruedee Chaimongkol, chief executive officer.

Therefore, the company decided to issue subordinated perpetual debentures. The interest rate has been set at 5.00 per cent per annum for the first five years, with the coupon payment made every six months, she added.

The issuer holds the right to redeem the debentures after five years, or according to other conditions defined in the registration statement and prospectus, as well as to defer interest payment unconditionally.

The company has appointed Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri Bank), CIMB Thai, Phatra Securities, and Asia Plus Securities as arrangers.

This year, Banpu have a capital expenditure plan of around US$ 930 million, of which US$ 700 million will be allocated to the expansion of natural gas business, US$170 million will be invested in renewable power plants, US$ 50 million in the energy technology business, and US$ 10 million in coal business.

This expansion will allow Banpu to strengthen its vision to be an integrated energy solutions business at the heart of innovation, technology, and sustainability to continuously deliver sustainable returns for both shareholders and stakeholders,” Somruedee said.

He was speaking after a meeting with Li Zhigang, vice-chairman of the Chinese-Thai Enterprises Association, on March 2.

Zhigang said the virus crisis had expanded industries like technology, as 5G has become more crucial to the medical and educational fields.

He expressed his concern over the Covid-19 situation in Thailand because of the impact on tourism.

Suphan said that the collaboration of the Chinese-Thai Enterprises Association had positive effects on trading between China and Thailand and it had also increased opportunity in trading between the two countries as well as strengthened the relationship between the two governments.

Coming off Wall Street’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, the Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 1,300 points, closing up 5.1%, its largest percentage gain since March 2009. The Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq composite also roared higher, particularly in late-day trading. Both finished up more than 4%, one of their biggest daily gains in years.

“Today’s market rebound is all at once an encouraging reminder to real investors of the utter silliness in trying to ‘time’ one’s way in and out of this market mayhem, and at the same time a danger if one wants to approach markets assuming a bottom has been put in place,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, based in Newport Beach, Calif.

All 11 S&P 500 stock market sectors were positive on Monday, led by utilities and consumer staples, as investors acted on a belief that the Fed and other central banks would take action to intervene, such as trimming interest rates. The Dow’s big gainers were Walmart and Apple.

“The market is anticipating major responses from global central banks, including multiple rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve,” said Dan Ivascyn, who oversees $1.9 trillion as the group chief investment officer of PIMCO.

The gains were welcome news after last week, when all three indexes dropped into correction territory. A correction is a 10% reversal from recent highs. The Dow shed 12.36%, the S&P 500 erased 11.49% and the Nasdaq lost 10.54% over last week.

Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at ProShares, said the volatility was due to uncertainty.

“Investors don’t know what the ultimate impact of the coronavirus will be,” Hyman said. “But if history is a guide, this will eventually pass, and markets will recover.”

Japan’s Nikkei, which plunged last week as officials declared a state of emergency in the northern island of Hokkaido and schools closed through early April, was up roughly 1%. The markets were no doubt lifted by remarks from Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, who said the central bank “will monitor developments carefully and strive to stabilize markets and offer sufficient liquidity via market operations and asset purchases.”

“Even though no one knows for sure how far this decline will go, Friday’s market action pointed to the likelihood of a near-term reflex rally, as many of the ‘loose hands’ may have been shaken free,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up roughly 0.6% and the Shanghai composite was 3.15% in the green.

European markets also entered corrections territory last week. They were only slightly steadier on Monday, with Britain’s FTSE 100 gaining nearly 1.2%. Germany’s DAX was trading down about 0.3%.

As last week’s sell-off fueled anxiety that coronavirus could trigger a recession, central banks around the world faced calls to find ways to intervene, even when it wasn’t clear that their traditional methods for staving off an economic downturn would be a match for the flu-like virus. Wall Street traders are now predicting at least three rate cuts this year, including one reduction when the Federal Reserve meets next on March 18. Interest rates are currently just below 1.75%, a low level by historical standards, but higher than the rates in much of the rest of the world.

On Monday, President Donald Trump criticized the Federal Reserve for being “slow to act” and continued his attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

“As usual, Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve are slow to act,” Trump tweeted. “Germany and others are pumping money into their economies. Other Central Banks are much more aggressive. The U.S. should have, for all of the right reasons, the lowest Rate. We don’t, putting us at a competitive disadvantage. We should be leading, not following!”

On Friday, Powell said the central bank would act if the economy takes a toll from coronavirus.

“The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong. However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity,” Powell said. “The Fed is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook. We will use our tools and act as appropriate to support the economy.”

There were concerns that last week’s Wall Street rout could push consumers to pull back on their spending and for companies to put a pause on hiring. Consumer spending has propped up not just the U.S. economy but also the global economy for a decade. Yet with painful memories of the 2008 financial crisis fresh in many Americans’ minds, fear around coronavirus could prompt shoppers to rein it in.

“Declining consumer confidence, potentially severe retail traffic declines and temporary store closures are evolving risk factors that depend on uncertain variables like the geographic spread of the virus and the timing of containment [or] eradication solutions,” analysts at Cowen wrote Monday morning.

That threat to consumer confidence, coupled with coronavirus’s blow to the manufacturing and production of toys, medical equipment, auto parts and smartphones from China, has the business community on high alert and has raised the chance of a recession, economists say.

Washington state announced four more coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the total death toll in the the United States to six, officials said, as the virus continues to spread despite travel restrictions aimed at curtailing it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday took steps to sharply expand testing. Meanwhile, cases continue to rise in South Korea, Italy and Iran.

“It is no longer possible to absolutely prevent new cases coming in,” Brendan Murphy, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, told reporters on Monday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the day before that he expected the outbreak to “spread a bit more” in Britain, where there are 39 confirmed cases.

The global death toll has passed 3,000, and South Korea said Monday it had confirmed 599 new cases, far higher than the daily tally reported in China. Italy now has more than 1,600 confirmed cases, while Iran surpassed 1,500, with 66 deaths.

Among the measures will be a 50 per cent cut in rental fees for business operators in passenger terminals, 50 per cent reduction in landing fees and a 90 per cent cut in parking fees.

The measures will last from March to August this year.

If approved, the plan will be forwarded to the cabinet for consideration.

“Airlines and businesses at the airports have suffered from declining passenger numbers, due mainly to the impact from the Covid-19 coronavirus,” he added.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said it would ask the Civil Aviation Board when it meets on March 6 to consider relief measures proposed by some 20 airlines suffering the effects of the virus outbreak.

The measures , he added, are customised to serve the specific needs of affected groups of businesses.

Tourism and Sports Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn said he would consult Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on his plan to boost domestic tourism.

A measure under consideration would offer incentives for people travelling to other provinces and stay overnight/s. The package, expected to kick off this month, will help promote income distribution to communities.

He added that the package being planned would be different to the one to be proposed to the Cabinet on Tuesday (March 3).

He said that the ministry would do its utmost to maintain tourism revenue this year at not lower than the total of Bt1.08 trillion for 2019.

According to Tourism Council of Thailand president Jarupol Rueangket, at least 30,000 tour guides nationwide have lost their jobs after the number of tourists nosedived by 80-90 per cent amid concerns over Covid-19.

It will further slow down Thai tourism, he warned