Egat governor Viboon Rerksirathai said that the state agency was assigned to develop 16 floating solar projects at nine dams under the present PDP of 2018-2037.

The development will generate a total 2,725 megawatts.

Egat has already granted an engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contract to a company to build the project with capacity of 45MW at Sirindhorn Dam.

The state agency has also pressed ahead with the study of the project to build a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Gulf of Thailand with capacity of 5 million tonnes per year.

The plan is at the stage of public hearings with involved parties.

He added that the ministry had not ordered Egat to shelve the solar project and the FSRU project, despite the ministry’s revision of PDP.

Amorn Kansaree, the assistant of the Bhumibol Dam director, said that Egat is also studying the floating solar project at Bhumibol Dam with capacity of 778MW.

The first phase of the project will be able to generate power of 158MW in 2026, an additional 300MW in 2030, and another 320MW in 2033. The construction area will occupy 8,000 rai of land.

If the project is approved by the government, the construction of Phase 1 is expected to begin in 2022.

He added that the cost of electricity generation by the floating solar project at the Bhumibol Dam would not exceed Bt2.40 per unit.

Governing Council members, who collectively lowered the key rate to minus 0.5% shortly before Draghi’s term ended, are increasingly portraying it as a necessary evil that shouldn’t be compounded. Sparse communication on monetary matters by his successor as president, Christine Lagarde, hasn’t dispelled that impression.

Banks have picked up on the mood change, dropping predictions that Lagarde — under the guidance of Chief Economist Philip Lane, the intellectual standard-bearer who proposed the latest cut as part of a stimulus package — would ease again at her first policy meeting on Dec. 12.

It’s a striking development for an institution whose credibility hangs on the promise that it can always do more if needed to revive inflation, and whose policy guidance explicitly states that rates can still fall further. It suggests that a strategy review planned by the new chief will need a thoughtful scrutiny of the toolkit.

“We don’t expect they’ll cut rates further,” said Sarah Hewin, chief economist for Americas and Europe at Standard Chartered Bank. “I’m not sure there is a consensus that negative rates are bad, but I’m wondering whether with this transition from Draghi to Lagarde — a new broom at the helm — there’s an opportunity to vocalize their concerns.”

Lane has defended negative rates as a complement to other measures that aim to spur economic activity. In one speech last month, he said they aren’t “super loose” — citing the absence of a price surge as a demonstration of that. In another, he said the policy forces banks to chase higher investment returns.

Aline Schuiling, an economist at ABN Amro Bank, reckons the weakness of the economy means the ECB will cut again, probably in March. There is “some recovery in growth, but not very spectacular,” she said.

Yet the lack of a broad public defense for negative rates has let a chorus of criticism from bankers fill the void. Among them is Deutsche Bank President Karl von Rohr, who last month described them as “the biggest challenge facing the European financial industry.” Even the ECB’s own financial stability review flagged the risks of ultra-loose money.

Two of the ECB’s prospective new board members took a similarly cautious view when quizzed by the European Parliament this week. Italy’s Fabio Panetta said officials need to be alert to the “unintended consequences of monetary policy.” His German colleague, Isabel Schnabel, said the institution should listen carefully to voters’ concerns on sub-zero rates.

Such discontent is vocal in some euro-zone countries, notably Germany and the Netherlands. Reflecting that, ECB officials are also privately encountering pushback from some finance ministers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann and Dutch central bank Governor Klaas Knot, already skeptics of loose policy, look unlikely to back another rate cut unless the economy worsens significantly. So far, it seems to be stabilizing. At Draghi’s final meeting in October, one participant made a plea for “patience” to allow current easing to work.

Bank of Spain Governor Pablo Hernandez de Cos said this week he couldn’t rule out that sub-zero policy could eventually harm monetary-policy transmission.

Perhaps most striking is that Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco, a long-time backer of monetary stimulus, has started criticizing the sub-zero policy, saying he prefers asset purchases.

“The longer they remain negative and the lower they go, the higher is the likelihood of significant negative side effects,” the Italian told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “I’m not encouraging this.”

One of the last banks holding out for a December rate cut, JPMorgan Chase, has thrown in the towel. Economist Greg Fuzesi said that “given the lack of any easing signal, and the time it often takes for the ECB to build consensus, it is becoming increasingly hard to see the ECB do more.” Barclays said this week that “the bar for more easing is high.”

The chief worry is that policy is close to the so-called reversal rate, where the harmful effects outweigh the good. Lane’s denial that such a situation is near may be valid, but it’s also unsurprising that the chief economist wants to dispel any impression of monetary impotence.

He and many of his colleagues, including Lagarde, do make the point that more government spending could speed up the path to normalization. Germany, the prime candidate to do that, isn’t rushing to respond though, and a newly created euro-area fiscal capacity is tiny.

In short, central bankers are approaching their last meeting of the year with a heavy heart about one of their signature policy tools, even if there’s no immediate way out.

Austrian Governor Robert Holzmann said in September that negative rates aren’t sustainable and will need to be reversed. That’s a relatively extreme view in the Governing Council — but the open hand-wringing on the matter among his colleagues suggests he could one day have company.

The S&P 500 index halted a three-day slide after Bloomberg News reported negotiators are getting near an agreement on the amount of tariff relief in a phase-one accord between the world’s two largest economies. President Donald Trump said discussions with China are going very well, just a day after downplaying the urgency of a deal. Treasury 10-year yields climbed, following the biggest decline since August. The dollar dropped. Oil surged.

Investors are watching for any signs of progress in talks between Washington and Beijing as worries increase that Trump may slap more tariffs on China this month. A flood of trade news has whipsawed global markets, with the U.S. also threatening levies on France after hitting steel from Brazil and Argentina. American equities reached record highs in November, driven in part by optimism that at least an initial trade deal was in the offing.

“You wake up every single day and see that the number one thing that’s dictating markets is trade,” said Matt Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management. “If those tariffs are avoided, then the recent gains in the market will likely hold.”

On corporate news:

– PG&E Corp. soared as the company was said to be close to a $13.5 billion deal with wildfire victims.

– Expedia Group Inc. surged as Chief Executive Officer Mark Okerstrom and Chief Financial Officer Alan Pickerill resigned after clashing with the board on the online travel agency’s direction.

– Cloud software stocks fell as disappointing forecasts from Workday Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. added to concern about slowing growth.

– Peloton Interactive Inc. tumbled as a report said it lowered the price of its digital subscription app for workouts in an effort to appeal to more users.

Elsewhere, oil rallied as Energy Information Administration data showed U.S. crude inventories fell more than expected. The British pound touched the highest against the euro since May 2017 as traders stepped up bets on a win for the Conservatives in next week’s election.

Here are some key events coming up this week:

– Germany releases factory-order data for October on Thursday.

– Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is scheduled to be priced on Thursday, with Riyadh looking to raise more than $25 billion.

– Friday brings the U.S. jobs report, where estimates are for non-farm payrolls to rise by 190,000 in November.

These are the main moves in markets:

– – –

– The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to 3,118.95 at 2:53 p.m. New York time.

– The Stoxx Europe 600 index surged 1.2%.

– The MSCI Asia Pacific index decreased 0.7%.

– – –

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index dipped 0.1%.

– The euro decreased 0.1% to $1.1072.

– The British pound climbed 0.8% to $1.3094.

– The Japanese yen weakened 0.3% to 108.94 per dollar.

– – –

– The yield on 10-year Treasuries increased six basis points to 1.78%.

– Germany’s 10-year yield climbed three basis points to -0.32%.

– Britain’s 10-year yield increased seven basis points to 0.741%.

– – –

– The Bloomberg Commodity index jumped 0.6%.

– West Texas Intermediate crude surged to $58.43 a barrel.

– Gold fell 0.3% to $1,479.30 an ounce.

“To boost exports in the last quarter of 2019, Ministry of Commerce went on several foreign trips to secure trade deals and negotiate with local authorities in an attempt to match Thai entrepreneurs with foreign counterparts,” he said. “We have signed MoUs for the export of Thai products with accumulated value of Bt70.9 billion, and delivery should start this month and continue through early 2020.”

Jurin added that major Thai entrepreneurs participating in these deals include CP Group, who agreed to export additional 10,000 tonnes of its products on top of its regular December export volume of 40,000 tonnes. “Meanwhile, the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Thai Industries will negotiate with 2 electronics manufacturing giants, namely Western Digital and Seagate Technology to increase their export volume in early 2020 as well,” he said.

“As for the automotive sector, Toyota has informed me that they will add 1,000 units to the December export volume while Honda will increase its export of hybrid cars next year,” he said. “PTT also agreed to export more as the government’s measures to promote use of alternative energy have resulted in more oil in reserve.”

Meanwhile, Thai Chamber of Commerce vice president Sanan Ang-Ubolkul said that Thai exports in 2019 had suffered greatly from the impacts of trade disputes and the appreciation of the Baht, making it a challenge to boost exports at year end. “This year we estimate that exports will shrink by 2.5 per cent with a total volume of US$246.2 billion,” he said. “2020 may see only 1 per cent growth at a total $250 billion, depending on how well the government handles the Baht appreciation problem, which is the top threat to Thai exports.”