For further details on this survey, please see the 2014 Q2 Quarterly Bulletin Article, “Public Attitudes to Monetary Policy”, http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/ Documents/quarterlybulletin/2014/qb14q205.pdf. BIS central bankers’ speeches  17  Chart 3: Satisfaction with the Bank and inflation perceptions Net satisfaction with the Bank (a) Median perceptions of current inflation - inverted (b) Differences from averages since 2000 (number of standard deviations) 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 2000  2002  2004  2006  2008  2010  2012  2014  -2.5  Source: Bank of England GfK/NOP survey. Notes: a) The percentage of respondents who were fairly or very satisfied with the way in which the Bank of England is doing its job to set interest rates in order to control inflation, less the percentage who were fairly or very dissatisfied. b) Respondents were asked how they thought prices had changed over the past twelve months. Data are to 2014Q3. For further details on this survey, please see the 2014 Q2 Quarterly Bulletin Article, “Public Attitudes to Monetary Policy”, http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarterlybulletin/2014/q b14q205.pdf.
Chief among these are supply bottlenecks such as a shortage of labour and public infrastructure, eroding competitiveness and productivity, and corruption. If not properly addressed, these could restrain the country’s growth potential in the medium term. The good news is that ongoing developments in Thailand are constructive. The current reform agenda holds promises for moving the country forward. The National Reform Committee, along with other task forces, has been founded to push forward muchneeded measures. (Slide 4) The Bank of Thailand is currently involved in the reform of stateowned enterprises, as this sector includes 8 State-Owned Financial Institutions (SFIs), whose asset size accounts for approximately a quarter of total assets in the Thai banking system. Starting from this year, we at the Bank of Thailand are appointed to be a “regulator” for such financial institutions, whilst the Ministry of Finance remains a “policy-maker” and an “owner”. This is one of the reform attempts to clearly separate the roles among those involved, in order to avoid potential conflict of interests and to ensure that SFIs are subject to a proper supervision akin to that of commercial banks. (Slide 5) While the reform efforts are welcome developments, to what extent reform plans will be put into action remains to be seen. One of the main challenges will be keeping the reform momentum going, as certain reforms may take years to complete. I think of sustainable reforms as running a marathon. You have to keep going steadily, slowly but surely.