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Thailand's Stock Rout Deepens as Rescue Plan Falters
The Straits Times
|March 18, 2025
An ambitious campaign to revive Thailand's battered stock market is falling flat, as entrenched pessimism about the economy accelerates a foreign funds exodus.
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Seven months after US$4.5 billion (S$6 billion) was newly injected into the Vayupak Fund, analysts have been left perplexed by how little it has helped the benchmark SET Index.
The stock gauge has tumbled more than 16 per cent in 2025, making it the world's worst performer among 92 indexes tracked by Bloomberg. Over the past 12 months, foreigners pulled out US$4.2 billion, the most across South-east Asia.
At the heart of weak investor sentiment is a lack of confidence that policymakers will be able to spur the economy beyond tourism, as well as deep-rooted concerns about high household debt, political uncertainties and corporate scandals.
US President Donald Trump's tariff war is adding to the headwinds as a stronger US dollar has forced investors to flee from emerging markets.
This story is from the March 18, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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