UPDATE 1-Thailand to appoint former energy executive Pichai finance minister, sources say

(Adds detail, background from paragraph 4 onwards)

By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Orathai Sriring

BANGKOK, April 25 (Reuuters) – Thailand will name former corporate energy executive and central bank board member Pichai Chunhavajira as its new finance minister, taking over the role from Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, two government sources told Reuters.

Pichai, 75, who was Srettha’s advisor, resigned as the chair of the board of Bangchak Corporation earlier on Thursday, having been in the post since 2012. Earlier this year he was appointed chair of the board of the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The government sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to media on the issue.

Pichai holds a master’s degree in business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was a board member of the Bank of Thailand from 2014 to 2017, and a director at PTT Exploration and Production from 2001 to 2013.

Pichai could not immediately be reached for comment.

If confirmed as finance minister, he would face a tough task of reviving Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which lags regional peers, as it faces high household debt and borrowing costs as well as China’s slowdown.

He would be tasked with overseeing key government policies, including a flagship 500 billion baht ($13.5 billion) handout scheme, which would transfer 10,000 baht ($270) to each of 50 million Thais to spend in their communities.

The stimulus has been delayed to late 2024 due to a lack of funding and concerns about the impact on public debt.

The economy unexpectedly shrank in the final quarter of 2023 from the third. Last year’s growth was 1.9%, below 2.5% growth in 2022. The state planning agency in February lowered its 2024 economic growth outlook to between 2.2% and 3.2% from a previous forecast of 2.7% to 3.7%.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Orathai Sriring and Satawasin Stapornchanchai; Editing by Martin Petty)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Click For Restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html