–  Export quantities continued to improve with the year-on-year growth rate in a high positive. This represents both the pick-up in our trading partners' purchasing power and our staying ability to compete. Another factor that continued to firm up the recovery process came from the fiscal front. –  During the first four months of fiscal year 2002, the budget disbursement rate accelerated compared to same period last year. This front-loaded fiscal stance will surely contribute to a sooner recovery. I must note here, however, that the jury is still out on what these early signs may portend. I believe the impassioned judgment on the speed of the recovery must await more data. Ladies and gentlemen, It is rather unfortunate that while economists are busy debating whether these early signs point to a tangible recovery, the recent strong boom in the stock market seemed to have overwhelmed that debate. On this point, let me say that we need to distinguish between the recent asset price performance and the economic fundamentals. It is true that the performance of the listed SET firms has improved. The improvement was led in part by better-than-expected profitability of listed companies. Corporate profits in general were also on the rise in 2001, compared to 2000. With this improvement, we are now more able to segregate the winners that is, the strong performers -- from those lagging behind. This presents a stark contrast to the previous pictures in which almost all sectors were judged to have performed poorly.
To meet the growth challenge, Thailand needs a steady and sincere effort at the micro-level to put our economy back on a more robust growth path. The reforms must aim for good corporate governance, faster debt restructuring, and the efficient and effective banking sector. Without these actions, the potency of the fiscal and monetary policies will be limited, and whatever gains in output we make will be ephemeral. The bottom line, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that Thailand will stand ready to reap the full advantage of an upcoming global recovery only if the real sector becomes competitive and the financial sector functions smoothly. The Bank of Thailand can contribute to the growth process by conducting a responsible monetary policy to ensure price stability, and by prodding the economy along the path of institutional reforms that have been initiated. With a sound policy framework and institutional reforms in place, a more efficient economic structure will have been built and the entrepreneurial energy of the private sector can be unleashed to ensure greater economic well being. This brings me to the last point I wish to make tonight, that is the need to speed up the structural reforms. I am convinced that the necessary transition toward more robust and durable growth lies in breaking out of the current constraints imposed on the economy post-1997, the most pressing of which is the debt-overhang problem. To go forward we first need to unshackle ourselves. The crawling pace of debt resolution is tying down the economy.