Written on Mar 28, 2014
As I said earlier, even though the SET’s upside has been capped by the prolonged domestic political dilemma, the downside seems protected by the likelihood that the ECB will resort to QE, possibly in its next monetary policy meeting due next week. It’s the only powerful tool left in the ECB’s locker and has the biggest impact I would say. The size could be in the range of 300-500 billion euros ($415-690 billion). The reason I think they has not launched it before is because there are no common euro zone bonds and the process of picking which country to purchase is fraught with political peril. Now, the situation has changed, with many economists also expecting the central bank to announce the program from this summer onwards in order to meet its primary objective of maintaining price stability. (First ignited when Oct’s data showed inflation had fallen to a 47-month low of 0.7%. The ECB cut interest rates at its Nov meeting in response. Inflation data for Feb was revised down from 0.8% to this rate-cut level.)
Politics --
The Democrat’s two-day annual general assembly, which begins today, is expected to reach one of these three positions on the new election. First, the party could decide to contest the fresh poll. Second, the party could remain non-committal over the issue, implying it will run in the fresh poll only after the poll has been accepted and peace restored. Third, the party could announce a boycott till supporters of the so-called Thaksin regime – a reference to the influence of ousted PM Thaksin on Thai politics – promise to stay out of politics.
For now, I feel the Democrats will not join a fresh election, as you can see from PDRC leader Suthep’s speech insisting that a general election must not happen until national reform is implemented. However, say if I’m wrong and the Democrats rush their return to the election race, they are unlikely to win votes from PDRC supporters anyway meaning the party might not win the new poll. Then, the Pheu Thai Party will win and seize power again. Or if the Democrats decide to boycott the election as expected, this would heat up political tensions again. To sum, in any way, the problems will remain. It's a perpetual cycle and I think sometimes you may not need to fret about it.