BANGKOK, Jan 25 Reuters Thailand39;s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin stressed on Thursday that the country39;s economy was in need of a big injection of stimulus to get out of what he called a crisis, and said it was at risk of falling further behind its competitors.

Speaking at a business forum, Srettha painted a bleak picture for an economy he said was troubled by household debt and low wages for the poor, championing his signature digital wallet handout policy of disbursing 500 billion baht 14 billion among 50 million Thais to spend in six months.

We need major stimulus, he said.

The digital wallet will lead to more production, more spending. We want to stimulate the grassroots economy in every district.

Srettha39;s controversial policy and characterisation of the economy as in crisis was rejected by the central bank governor, in an interview with Reuters this week. The governor said slowerthanexpected growth did not constitute a crisis and quick stimulus would not address the economy39;s structural problems.

We will listen to opinions from all sides and there will be no corruption, said Srettha, a real estate mogul who is also Finance Minister, adding that minimum wages had to increase to make the economy more equitable.

The Finance Ministry also slashed its forecast for 2024 growth to 2.8 from an earlier forecast of 3.2 on lower foreign tourist arrivals and exports.

1 35.7300 baht

Reporting by Orathai Sriring and Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Martin…