Thailand

The IMF's Bangkok meetings ended on Saturday with warnings that the global economy's resilience is under strain. Bloomberg reports the ECB is leaning toward a December rate hike.

Economy

Many delegates to the International Monetary Fund's steering committee walked out of a meeting in Bangkok on Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov addressed the group in Russian, according to three sources cited by South China Morning Post. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was among those who left, The Guardian reports.

Geopolitics

Tencent reported unintended behaviour from its AI agents, and Citi and other US banks are restricting agents from handling customer money. G7 finance ministers agreed to hold simulated AI attack drills.

Technology

G20 and G7 finance ministers met in Bangkok while the Iran war's energy shock feeds into bond yields and fuel supply. The IMF names a prolonged war as the biggest risk for the Middle East.

Economy

The IMF kept its 2026 global growth forecast at 3.1% on Tuesday but said the room to absorb shocks is narrowing. Its financial stability report names bond yields and a possible AI market correction as key risks.

Economy

IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday that AI investment is keeping global growth around 3% despite the energy shock. She called AI a "slow-moving tsunami" for labour markets.

Economy

The IMF and World Bank annual meetings opened in Bangkok on Monday, dominated by the energy shock from the war with Iran. Oil rose again and India's central bank moved to defend the rupee.

Economy

Monsoon floods in Thailand have killed between 52 and 60 people, according to reports on Wednesday. An industry federation puts the damage at $178 million, Reuters reports.

Geopolitics

The death toll from floods in Thailand has risen to 31, according to the interior ministry. Reuters reported the figure on Monday.

Geopolitics

Surging waters along the Mekong have driven tens of thousands from their homes in Myanmar and Laos. Thai farming communities along the river are bracing for more flooding.

Geopolitics

Thailand's government has suspended the issuing of new firearms licences and promised tighter gun controls after an attack at a school that killed nine people. The New York Times reports that it remains unclear how far the government will go in a country that has seen a string of high-profile shootings in recent years.

Geopolitics

Thailand has suspended firearms licences after a teenage gunman attacked a school in Nonthaburi, leaving nine people dead, the Guardian reported on Wednesday. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul called for tighter gun controls and 'decisive penalties'; the gunman and the grandparents he killed have been cremated.

Geopolitics

A gunman shot the chairman of a provincial administrative organisation and his driver in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, and one person died, according to reports on Monday and Tuesday. Police accuse a former member of parliament of the attack, which came days after a 14-year-old went on a killing spree.

Geopolitics

Police said on Sunday that the 14-year-old who killed eight people in Thailand had an air gun confiscated by a teacher at school last year and had watched violent content online. According to Le Monde, he shot his grandparents with his grandfather's pistol at their home north of Bangkok on Friday before opening fire at his school, where six of the victims died, and the case has revived debate about the nearly 10 million firearms in circulation in the country.

Geopolitics

Myanmar's military-backed government rebuffed ASEAN's renewed demand for the unconditional release of the detained former leader and questioned the need for a special envoy, the South China Morning Post and Nikkei Asia report. The refusal follows Thailand's reception for junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Geopolitics

A 12-year-old girl wounded in Friday's school shooting near Bangkok died on Saturday, raising the death toll to nine including the attacker and his grandparents.

Geopolitics

Thailand welcomed Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing with a red-carpet reception, according to the FAZ, and some rebel groups have now signalled willingness to negotiate. Critics of the opening call it a betrayal.

Geopolitics

A 14-year-old student shot dead his grandparents and then opened fire at his high school outside Bangkok on Friday before killing himself, Thai authorities said. Reported death tolls range from five, according to local police cited by TASS, to eight, according to Daily Sabah, with 23 people injured; the New York Times reports the attack has revived debate about Thailand's gun laws.

Geopolitics