global credit card companies using emvco, it could serve as a platform to enhance financial connectivity in the region. thai banks and payment service providers have begun to work with partners in our neighboring countries to facilitate cross - border payments using the standardized qr code. this standardized qr code was a product that went through the bank of thailand ’ s regulatory sandbox. going forward, there are a few high - impact 7 / 10 technologies or applications which are being developed and tested in the bank of thailand ’ s regulatory sandbox. the first one is an extension of our standardized qr code to include other means of payment, including credit card. this could bring down the number of fraudulent transactions, and markedly reduce the merchant discount fees for credit card payments. the second one is the blockchain technology which we are working closely with the financial industry to apply them to various banking applications. ‘ thailand blockchain community initiative ’ was officially announced at the bangkok fintech fair in march of this year. this initiative is a collaboration between 14 thai banks and 7 leading businesses and state - owned enterprises to utilize blockchain technology in financial services, starting with a pilot project to offer blockchain - based letters of guarantee. this project is expected to become operational in the second half of this year. on a longer horizon, the blockchain technology is also planned to be applied to supply chain finance to improve authentication efficiency which would facilitate real sector activities. other blockchain related projects in the pipeline include scriptless bond issuance which would significantly speed up saving bond allocation to retail investors from 15 days to 2 days, as well as granting more flexibility for bond issuers. the proof - of - concept of this project is almost complete, and production is expected to begin in the very near future. another project in the pipeline is the “ project inthanon ” in which the bank of thailand and banks will co - develop a new way of conducting interbank settlement using wholesale central bank digital currency or cbdcs. like other central banks, our goal is not to immediately bring cbdc into use, but rather to explore its potential and implications for back office operations. these efforts should pave way for faster and cheaper transaction and validation due to less intermediation process needed compared to the current systems. so far, i have discussed the bank of thailand ’ s role as a catalyst for digital infrastructure development and as a facilitator of innovation. one should not forget that our core mandate is being

sethaput suthiwartnarueput : laying the foundations for a sustainable recovery keynote address by dr sethaput suthiwartnarueput, governor of the bank of thailand, at the stock exchange of thailand : thailand focus 2023 " the new horizon ", bangkok, 23 august 2023. * * * distinguished guests, first, let me thank the stock exchange of thailand for inviting me to give a talk at the thailand focus this year. today, i will share with you my thoughts about the economic outlook, along with some observations about the bank of thailand ( bot )'s policy responses, focusing on monetary policy and financial policies in relation to household debt. part 1 : economic outlook before i go on in terms of economic outlook, it will be useful to do a look back and think about where things were a year ago, when i last spoke in august last year. things were quite different then. recovery in thailand was slow and lagged the region, partly due to our economy's heavy reliance on tourism. we closed out last year with about 11 million tourists, down from the 40 million prior to covid, and a fairly slow recovery in terms of the overall economic picture. consumption was recovering steadily from a low base. at the end of 2022, gdp growth came out at 2. 6 %. what was probably top of mind for us then was inflation, which was rising very rapidly as it was all around the world. headline cpi peaked in august 2022 at 7. 9 %, and eventually the outturn for the entire year turned in at 6. 1 %. core inflation peaked in december 2022 at about 3. 2 %. so that was the picture last year. fast forward to today, where are we now? things are on a much firmer ground. recovery is intact. gdp is finally back to pre - covid level in the first quarter of this year. consumption has been growing steadily, at above 6 % last year and above 5 % in first quarter of this year. tourism, which is a key determinant of the overall stage of economic recovery, has been recovering very steadily. year - todate, as of july, we had about 15 million tourists. we still maintain our year - end forecast for tourists of about 29 million, so we are getting closer to the pre - covid level. but the picture is not all wine and roses. there are some soft spots. exports have come in weaker than expected due