Thailand

Thailand’s financial markets are in the early stages of diversification and expansion. The local equity market is reasonably large on a primary basis but is often illiquid on a secondary basis, particularly in smaller capitalization stocks. The fixed income market is impacted by lack of government bond issuance, which has slowed development of the domestic private sector bond and swap markets. As a result of limitations in Thailand’s cash markets, the country’s derivative market is still in the first stages of development; despite current limitations, however, the financial authorities have various initiatives underway designed to enhance local derivative capabilities over the coming years.