Thailand not quitting economic stimulus soon -Korn

BANGKOK, Feb 9 - Thailand's government has no immediate plans to reverse its stimulus programme adopted since early 2009 despite growing signs of economic recovery in the past few months, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said on Tuesday.

The government saw its stimulus spending, both on big infrastructure projects and rural development, as essential for the economy while the current global recovery remained fragile, the minister told reporters.

"Careful thought must be given to any decision on an economic exit strategy. It must be done gradually if we chose to do it as the global economy is still fragile, which may affect our export and tourism revenues. No change will be made soon," Korn said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Reuters on Friday the economy could grow around 4.5 percent in 2010 after an estimated 2.7 percent contraction in 2009. [ID:nSGE6140H1]

Finance Minister Korn said the government did not intend to scale down its three-year, 1.42 trillion baht stimulus programme despite the faster-than-expected Thai recovery and target-exceeding tax revenue collected by the authorities since the last quarter of 2009.

"We are still keeping the ceiling of the original stimulus programme. The only adjustment we will make is on the source of its financing, which will be shifted to rely more on state revenue than public borrowing," he said. (Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by Alan Raybould)