THAILAND: Dark Clouds Gather Over PM As She Asks For Time To Prepare Defence

Jul-15 07:52

Suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra asked the Constitutional Court for a 15-day extension to the deadline for the submission of her defence paperwork in a case surrounding her controversial phone call with Cambodian leader Hun Sen. Meanwhile, latest source reports suggest that she may find herself in the crosshairs of another law enforcement agency.

  • The PM's Secretary-General Prommun Lertsuridej said that 'we've requested an extension today, but by how long is up to the court. It's within our rights to do so, as we couldn't prepare the statement in time.' The Court is yet to respond to the request has discretion in deciding on the length of the potential extension, as the Prime Minister prepares to fight a case that could lead to her dismissal.
  • The Constitutional Court suspended Paetongtarn in her duties as Prime Minister on July 1, initially giving her 15 days to submit a written response. The case was triggered by a leaked phone call between herself and Cambodia's Senate President Hun Sen amid an ongoing border dispute, in which she appeared to be kowtowing to her interlocutor and criticising a Thai military commander, which generated strong backlash at home.
  • While nominally head of government, Paetongtarn remains in the shadow of her father Thaksin Shinawatra, a business mogul and founder of the ruling Pheu Thai party. A similar arrangement is in place in Cambodia, where Hun Sen continues to wield considerable influence, despite allowing his son Hun Manet to succeed him as Prime Minister and himself moving to the position of Senate President.
  • Reuters reported that the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has now also set its sights on Paetongtarn and set up an investigation panel. This was corroborated in several source reports circulated in local media at the start of this week, although the NACC has refused to confirm any imminent probe. Should the Commission launch an investigation, it would further undermine the position of the beleaguered Prime Minister.

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US FISCAL: Available Extraordinary Measures Pick Up Ahead Of Tax Date

Jun-13 20:42

Treasury had $144B in "extraordinary measures" available to keep the government financed as of June 11 per a release Friday. That is up from $84B a week earlier and the highest since April 28. 

  • However, TGA cash continues to fall, to $309B latest (lowest since early April) Combined with a pullback in Treasury cash ($376B), keeping the total resources  available to avert an "x-date" in the summer at around $450B .
  • There will be another uptick in Treasury cash in the coming days, and it's likely Treasury allowed some of the extraordinary measures to be rebuilt (ie not exercised) in anticipation of more cash coming in.
  • This is likely to be the  last major uplift before the summer at which point x-date speculation will  pick up if Congress hasn't passed a debt limit increase by then.
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FED: Two Cuts Priced This Year Headed Into FOMC Week

Jun-13 20:28

As we head into the June Fed meeting week, market pricing is reflective of the FOMC’s messaging (that we describe in our preview): 

  • The next cut is only fully priced by the October FOMC meeting, with September seeing a roughly 80% implied probability of bringing the next 25bp reduction.
  • Exactly 50bp of cuts are priced through end-2025, implying two Q4 cuts.
  • That’s a shift from just after the May meeting, after which the next cut was fully priced by September, and there were closer to three cuts priced for the rest of the year.
  • Overall cuts are seen backloaded this year (after 15bp in September, 29bp of cuts priced in Q4 - Oct/Dec combined), but falls off in Q1 (just 21bp cuts priced, 9bp of cuts priced for January and 12bp for March)
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FED: Summary Of Economic Projections: Higher 2025 Inflation, Weaker Growth

Jun-13 20:21

The MNI Markets Team’s expectations for the updated Economic Projections are below. 

  • As of the May meeting, the Federal Reserve staff – whose outlook tends to be broadly shared by the median Committee member – revised their forecasts for growth weaker in 2025 and 2026, “as announced trade policies implied a larger drag on real activity relative to the policies that the staff had assumed in their previous forecast. Trade policies were also expected to lead to slower productivity growth and therefore to reduce potential GDP growth over the next few years. With the drag on demand expected to start earlier and to be larger than the supply response, the output gap was projected to widen significantly over the forecast period. The labor market was expected to weaken substantially, with the unemployment rate forecast moving above the staff's estimate of its natural rate by the end of this year and remaining above the natural rate through 2027."
  • On inflation, "The staff's inflation projection was higher than the one prepared for the March meeting. Tariffs were expected to boost inflation markedly this year and to provide a smaller boost in 2026; after that, inflation was projected to decline to 2 percent by 2027."
  • Our expectations for these changes fall somewhere in between those projections and the March SEP – a slightly higher unemployment rate, substantially higher inflation in 2025 but to a lesser extent in 2026, and weaker GDP growth this year. Longer-run variables should be unchanged.

MNI Markets Team Expectations For June 2025 Summary Of Economic Projections Medians

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