These trends, and the extraordinary efforts of UK businesses themselves to cope with the hostile international environment, are already resulting in a stronger net external trade performance. That in turn is contributing to the recovery, particularly in manufacturing output growth and to the more encouraging news in some recent surveys. To the extent that this improvement in external demand persists, it will help to ease the exceptional pressures on the most internationally-exposed sectors, and contribute to a better balance within the UK economy. But it needs, of course, to be accompanied by corresponding moderation of the growth of domestic demand - after the offsetting stimulus of a year ago - if we are to maintain overall stability. That essentially is why interest rates have had to rise since last autumn. Mr Chairman, most people, as I say, accept in principle that sustained monetary stability is good for the economy as a whole in the longer term - though it is accepted with varying degrees of enthusiasm by adversely affected sectors at any particular time. But there is, nevertheless plenty of room for debate about the operation of monetary policy in practice. Specifically at present the MPC is often accused of being overzealous - and it is suggested that we don’t in fact need to raise interest rates at this point in order to achieve the inflation target. That is a more technical question. Changes in interest rates take time to have their full effect, so our decisions have to be forward looking.
For us  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  to achieve this goal, the BOT will adhere to our economic and financial stability mandates while reaching out to other public policy dimensions to promote a common vision of all policymakers to achieve a more competitive Thai economy. This common vision must however reflect the desired policy result based on real needs of the people. Through outreach and humility, we will also engage more with our stakeholders in pursuit of Thailand’s sustainable economic wellbeing so that Thailand can cross the transitional gateway and stand on the world stage with strength and stability. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches