In the 21 years after the Asian financial crisis of 1997, Thailand’s government ran a budget deficit 18 times. However, due to ineffective management, excessive fiscal spending did not produce the intended effect of economic acceleration. Given the monopolistic nature of the economy, which is primarily owned by a few elites, the sprinkling of water did not result in more competitive investments, employment, rising wages, and finally, more revenues for the state coffers. That prompted the government to adopt fiscal rules in 2018 to control this tendency towards permanent deficits. Since 2020, t…

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