Moody’s Investors Service is warning Thailand that any recent or future losses coming from its unmodified rice buying scheme will make the government’s goal of acquiring a balanced budget by 2017 more difficult. The statement was based on a report that the losses incurred by Thailand with its rice-buying scheme during the harvest season of 2011-12 were bigger than what the Ministry of Finance had originally predicted.
The THB200 billion losses for the harvest year were much bigger than what the World Bank and Finance Ministry had estimated.
Moody’s rates Thailand a “Baa1” with a stable outlook. Thailand has expressed hopes that it will get a credit upgrade and to get back the “A” rating it once had before the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Nation reported.
