Thai deputy premier wants review of IMF terms

Thai deputy prime minister and commerce minister Suphachai Phanitchaphak has said the assumptions made by the IMF over the terms of its assistance to Thailand are not correct and should be reviewed.

He told Thai radio that Bangkok would not raise "any particular proposal or request" at its meeting with the IMF but it would point out some problems.

"First, the IMF's assumptions are incorrect.

Second, the impact caused by the implementation of the IMF's measures are severe, beyond expectation, and do not help to build confidence in the system," Supachai said, in remarks broadcast by the radio on Tuesday.

Supachai said that although Thailand had tried to readjust the mechanisms concerned, "Thailand has still failed to solve the problem because the economic problem is inter-related to the Asian region".

"If we continue to implement these measures, the economy will face a severe recession and it will take longer to recover .

However, the measures to deal with the financial institutions are still necessary.

I believe now that the IMF headquarters in the United States understands such problems.

So, we should submit the results of the implementation of the measures to the IMF so that it can review its package," he said.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.