Dozens of people marched in Bangkok on Thursday, seeking to draw the attention of world financial leaders to poverty, pollution and other grievances during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Protesters, some wearing masks of US President Donald Trump, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and other leaders, dragged a float of a big pink pig with dollar signs for eyes toward the venue, briefly blocking traffic near the rigorously guarded convention centre where more than 15,000 officials and experts were gathered for the IMF's autumn meeting.
The protesters were also demonstrating against financial institutions and against what they said were the “vile abuses” of the Thai government and financial institutions.
“Our country is facing a crisis of household debt. Our people are growing poorer. Our environment is deteriorating. Climate disasters are intensifying,” the People's Network Against the World Bank and IMF said in a written declaration.
Thailand has used the meetings as an opportunity to showcase its capital city, where luxury hotels and other trappings of extreme wealth contrast with shantytowns, fetid canals and people sleeping rough along major thoroughfares.
Apart from a minor scuffle with police on a pedestrian bridge, the peaceful protesters marched from the nearby Khlong Toei slum toward the convention centre and then disbanded.
In Asia, regional economic growth is projected to slow to 4.8% this year from 5% in 2025, and then to 4.4% in 2027, dragged lower by the back-to-back shocks of the pandemic, the Ukraine war, the Iran war and higher tariffs and other trade barriers, IMF economists say.
The IMF chief and other top economic experts have emphasised the need for countries, including Thailand, to ensure they control debt by focusing their government spending on helping their most vulnerable people with targeted and temporary assistance. - AP
