Thai Army Adopts Thaksin-Style Populist Steps to Spur Growth

Thailand’s junta is taking a page out of Thaksin Shinawatra’s policy playbook, adopting some of the populist measures that drove his political success in a move that may help stabilize growth for the remainder of 2014.

Since the May 22 coup that displaced former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai government, the military has vowed to accelerate budget spending, capped fuel costs and asked consumer-product makers to freeze prices, echoing steps favored by Yingluck and her brother Thaksin. It also restarted payments under a disputed rice purchase program, aiding farmers who were the biggest supporters of the Shinawatras.