BANGKOK, Jan 8 (TNA) – Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) executive chairman Vichit Surapongchai on Wednesday expressed concern over increasing unemployment in the country, saying it remains unclear whether the amount of money the government set aside from the budget to help jobless people is sufficient.

On Wednesday the government's economic ministers approved an allocation of Bt5.2 billion to help over 500,000 jobless people expected to officially register with the government.

He said what should be of concern for this year's economy is the rising number of jobless people.

It is still unknown which industries would gain from a budget earmarked to stimulate the economy and how much it would spend to jump start the economy.

He noted many countries had spent a huge amount of money to resuscitate the economy, but it remained unsure it would help cope with the unemployment. Currently, Dr. Vichit said, there are signs of rising unemployment.

For instance, Toyota Motor, the country's largest automaker, began reducing production in certain months, which could lead to more layoffs.

As well, the agricultural sector is of concern since farm product prices have declined and more farmers will be left jobless.

Simultaneously, small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) needed be closely supervised because they represents 40 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

SCB president Kannikar Chalitaporn said the Thai economy is likely to grow 0.5 per cent this year or only as much as 2 per cent in the best case scenario. It is still satisfying that the economy would not experience a negative growth.

She predicted that the Bank of Thailand's Monetary Policy Committee will further reduce the policy interest rate in the same direction with the global interest trend to 1-2 per cent .

The baht is likely to stay at 35-36 to the US dollar while loans are expected to grow by only 3-5 per cent compared with 6-7 per cent last year, she said. (TNA)