BANGKOK, May 5 Reuters Following is Wednesdays statement from Thailands central bank after it left the benchmark oneday repurchase rate unchanged at a record low of 0.50, as expected, warning of a third coronavirus wave risk.

All 14 economists in a Reuters poll had expected the Bank of Thailand BOT to remain on hold after three rate cuts in the first half of 2020 to ease the impact of the pandemic.

Mr. Titanun Mallikamas, Secretary of the Monetary Policy Committee MPC, announced the outcome of the meeting on May 5 as follows

The Committee voted unanimously to maintain the policy rate at 0.50 percent.

The Committee assessed that the Thai economy would expand at a much lower rate due to the third wave of the COVID19 outbreak which affected domestic spending and the recovery of foreign tourist figures.

The Committee viewed that procurement and distribution of vaccines in an adequate and timely manner was the most important issue for the Thai economy at the present.

Regarding financial measures, the most important one would be the distribution of liquidity to the businesses and households additionally affected by the new outbreak.

In particularly, credit measures and expedited debt restructuring would reduce financial burden in a more targeted manner than cutting the policy rate, which was already at a low level and remained supportive of economic recovery.

The Committee thus voted to maintain the policy rate at this meeting to preserve the limited policy space to…