Protests could hinder Thailand's economic recovery from Covid-19

As protests continue to sweep across Thailand, one economist at Nomura warns that civil unrest could hinder the country’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

″(The protests) could potentially delay, if not even derail, the economic recovery. You know, despite Thailand (being) relatively successful in flattening the Covid-19 curve,” Euben Paracuelles, chief Asean economist at Nomura, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday.

Some of the demands from protesters in the current civil unrest include constitutional amendments and an unprecedented call for reforms to the monarchy — traditionally a taboo subject that could leave protesters jailed under the country’s lese majeste laws, which protect the monarchy and forbid insults to the king and his family.