From 1971 to 1990 he worked for the
Thai Farmers Bank, becoming senior executive vice president. In 1990 he became official spokesman for Prime Minister
Chatichai Choonhavan. In the governments of
Anand Panyarachun and
Suchinda Kraprayoon (1991–92) he was deputy minister of commerce. He was appointed a member of the
Thai Senate from 1992 to 1993. In 1993 he became president of the
Export-Import Bank of Thailand. Pridiyathorn served as the Chairman of the NIST International School Foundation, the governing body of
NIST International School, from 2009 to 2017.
Bank of Thailand Governor In May 2001 he was appointed Governor of the
Bank of Thailand, the nation's central bank. He is also a director of the Civil Service Commission and of the
Thammasat University Council. Pridiyathorn repeatedly criticised Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra who took office in 2001. Pridiyathorn disagreed with Thaksin's spending policy, which he saw as a cause of inflation. As Krung Thai Bank head, Viroj had forgiven 1.6 billion baht of Sondhi's debts and arranged for further rounds of forgiveness. Using all his media outlets, Sondhi attacked Pridiyathorn and defended Viroj. Viroj was eventually forced to leave Krung Thai Bank. Sondhi's public criticism of Thaksin started to increase, eventually leading to the establishment of the
People's Alliance for Democracy.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Two days after the coup which deposed Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra, the Bangkok newspaper
The Nation reported that business leaders had asked the junta (
Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy) to appoint Pridiyathorn as an interim prime minister. He was notably endorsed by
Chatri Sophonpanich, chairman of
Bangkok Bank. Eventually, the junta chose retired general
Surayud Chulanont as interim prime minister, but he in turn named Pridiyathorn to his cabinet as minister of finance, a move that business leaders saw as positive. He was succeeded as governor of the Bank of Thailand by
Tarisa Watanagase, the first woman to head the BOT. Pridiyathorn's policies as minister of finance included: • Fiscal deficits. A
budget deficit of 147 billion
baht for fiscal year 2007. This was the first budget deficit since 2003. Fiscal deficits were also expected for 2008. • Suvarnabhumi City. Pridiyathorn opposed the establishment of a new province, dubbed
Suvarnabhumi City, around the newly constructed
Suvarnabhumi Airport. The plan to establish a new province had been proposed by the deposed government of
Thaksin Shinawatra. "There are a lot of retention ponds in the area and water experts said they serve as waterways, allowing floods to flow to the sea. If there are buildings, they will obstruct water from flowing out, and cause the inner city to flood. If the Department of Town and Country Planning proposes to build a community in the area, I'll oppose it," said Pridiyathorn. •
Capital controls. Pridiyathorn instituted capital controls to attempt to reverse a strengthening of the
baht, but reversed the measure after the Thai stock market crashed, destroying US$20 billion of market value in one day. Pridiyathorn later noted that "This was not a mistake. Measures always have side effects. Once we knew the side effects, we quickly fixed it.... Just one day of stocks falling is not considered much damage." He came under harsh criticism. Bratin Sanyal, head of Asian equity investments at
ING in Hong Kong noted, "The one thing worse than an incompetent central bank is an incompetent central bank that flip-flops." Catherine Tan, head of Asia Emerging Markets at Forecast in Singapore, noted, "They are proving themselves to be very unprofessional. Their actions are very irresponsible. They have totally lost credibility... I don't see foreigners returning to Thailand any time in the near future. Markets now have no confidence in the government." The
Export-Import Bank of Thailand also criticized the capital controls. • Limiting foreign companies investing in List I and II businesses (including media, telecoms, and aviation) from holding more than 50 percent of shares. List III businesses (including retailers and hotels) were exempted from the new restrictions. Investors holding more than 50 percent would be forced to lower their stakes within a year. Investors holding more than 50 percent of voting rights would be forced to lower their voting stakes within a year. Finance Minister Pridiyathorn noted, "If they [foreign investors] had seen the details [of the foreign investment law], I am sure that they would be happy." He later backtracked, and said that the changes would largely be limited to the telecom industry. The proposed changes in the investment rules—which were approved in principle by the cabinet and still needing approval by the National Legislative Assembly that was appointed after the coup—don't appear as sweeping as many investors had feared. Retailers, insurers, banks and brokers are specifically exempted from the proposed changes to the investment law. That effectively leaves hypermarket operators such as Tesco PLC of Britain and Carrefour SA of France, both of which have large chains in Thailand, off the hook. • Corruption investigations into Thaksin Shinawatra. Pridiyathorn sparked controversy in his dealings with
Jaruvan Maintaka of the junta-appointed Assets Examination Committee. Jaruvan accused Thaksin's wife of inappropriately buying a plot of land from the
Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) while Pridiyathorn was FIDF Chairman. Pridiyathorn asserted that the purchase was legal and refused to file charges, claiming that the FIDF was not a damaged party. Jaruvan then claimed that Pridiyathorn violated the law by sitting on the boards of more than three state enterprises. Pridiyathorn countered by claiming that Jaruvan was trying to destroy his reputation. • Monetary policy. Pridiyathorn took the unusual step of urging the
Bank of Thailand to cut interest rates by half a percentage point, rather than 25
basis points as expected by most analysts. Bank of Thailand is independent of the Ministry of Finance, and did not heed Pridiyathorn's call. He resigned the next day. Pridiyathorn resigned on 28 February 2007. As a reason for his resignation he cited Premier Surayud's decision to appoint Pridiyathorn's rival, former Thaksin-government Finance Minister
Somkid Jatusripitak, as a "
self-sufficiency economy" special envoy. Somkid resigned from his position after less than a week. Another reason given was the Minister to the Office of the Prime Minister
Thirapat Serirangsan's alleged preference for certain private media interests. Several analysts speculated that he was referring to the preferential treatment the junta gave to leading anti-Thaksin critic
Sondhi Limthongkul, who was also a long-time critic of Pridiyathorn. His resignation shocked the political world as well as the business community. "The reasons he gave were quite strange," noted Pornsilp Patcharinpanakul, deputy secretary-general of Board of Trade. Pridiyathorn was replaced by
Chalongphob Sussangkarn.
Junta leader General
Saprang Kalayanamitr was also implicated in Pridiyathorn's resignation. The
Bangkok Post reported that Pridiyathorn resigned in protest after a CNS member lobbied him to sell shares of IRPC (formerly known as Thai Petrochemical Industry or TPI) back to a former shareholder. Saprang's brother, Chienchuan, was a key financial advisor to
Prachai Liaophairat, the estranged founder of TPI.
Economic advisor to the 2014 junta Pridiyathorn was an outspoken critic of
Yingluck Shinawatra's government, especially its scheme assuring a
fixed minimum rice price to farmers. In November 2013 he estimated the costs of the programme at 425 billion baht. In February 2014 he called Yingluck's economic policies a failure and asked her to step down. Instead, he called for the appointment of a "neutral", unelected government. After the
22 May 2014 coup d'état, the junta—which calls itself
National Council for Peace and Order—appointed Somkid a member of its "advisory board" in charge of economic issues. On 31 August Pridiyathorn was appointed a deputy prime minister in the first military-appointed cabinet under General
Prayut Chan-o-cha. ==Wealth==