Acting to return inflation to its 2% target Having already discussed some of the key considerations governing my assessment of the monetary policy outlook, I will conclude with a few remarks on recent MPC communication, notably the statement published in the aftermath of the June meeting. This represents peeling yet another layer off the onion. In both the media and among market participants, there is a cottage industry seeking to interpret central bank statements. I have been part of that industry in the past. Those still working there needn’t worry: I am not about to put them out of business, and I am certainly not going to preannounce my MPC vote today. Of course, there will always be efforts to interpret any central bank communication for clues about the policy outlook. That is both inevitable, and sought after by policy makers: after all, what would be the point of making statements if you hope that they will be ignored? But I would caution the addressees of such statements against reading them solely through the lens of ‘forward guidance’ about immediate policy rate decisions. As I have said in the past,[12] I am sceptical of forward guidance as a tool for central bank communication and policy, at least when understood as providing a definitive view of the shortterm interest rate outlook – what is sometimes called forward guidance with a capital F and capital G. On my reading of the evidence across jurisdictions, experience of using such forward guidance is, at best, mixed.
Over the past few years, manufacturers have invested heavily in machineries and systems to increase utilization of automation as evidenced by increasing robot installations in Thai factories4. Firms in non-manufacturing sector are also moving fast in adopting new technologies—from banks and telcos offering more efficient digital financial services; shops abandoning physical storefront and employing e-commerce and social-commerce platforms; and to firms advertising through social media platforms. To encourage further technological adoption and improve adaptive capabilities, to ultimately build resilience, it is also important that regulatory environment is conducive to fostering innovations. And it is with this goal of facilitating innovative environment that the Bank of Thailand took on a number of initiatives in recent years. These include  Continuing regulatory reform on foreign exchange regulations to remove outdated requirements, allow for greater flexibility in foreign exchange management, and improve ease of doing business;  Relaxing money transfer business ownership requirements to allow for greater competition and reduce cost of cross-border money transfer;  Streamlining our regulatory sandbox scheme to allow new fintech products to reach market faster;  Collaborating with the banking industry to explore use of central bank digital currency for domestic wholesale banking settlement operations; and  3 For instance, Thailand is ranked top ten in number of Facebook users according to Statista (2019). https://www.statista.com/statistics/268136/top-15-countries-based-on-number-of-facebook-users/  4 According to International Federation of Robotics, Thailand’s robot sales increased by over 30 percent between 2015 and 2017 and are expected to grow at an annual average of more than 20 percent over the next three years.