In the latter part, I will share with you my thoughts on the way the Thai economy is moving forward as well as opportunities for Japanese businesses. Let me start with the first part, by reviewing what we went through last year. I believe you all agree with me that 2016 was full of unexpected events and turns. On the domestic front, we faced with a severe drought early in the year followed by a historic flood in the South around the end of the year, and of course the passing of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol, which caused all Thai people the greatest sorrow. Also, the government’s crackdown of illegal tour operators led to temporary yet significant effects on the tourism industry which had been a major growth driver of the economy in the past few years. On the external front, we saw the Bank of Japan’s adopting a negative interest rate policy in January of last year, an unease  1  over the fate of European financial institutions, the Brexit vote, and the unexpected outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Yet the Thai economy was able to weather these storms, one after another, and ended up with a 3.2 percent growth with all stability intact. The resilience reflected the underlying strength of the economy which owed partly to preemptive policies to create shock absorbers for the economy such as ample international reserves and ample banks’ capital base and loan loss provision.
This illustrates the importance of further reforms. 1/1  BIS central bankers' speeches