Protests hurting Thai economy
The recent political unrest in Thailand is hurting its economy. CNN's Pauline Chiou has more.

The long running political protests are beginning to hurt Thailand's economy. The benchmark index, the SET or Stock exchange of Thailand has dropped 12% in the past month. The Thai buht has seen a slide of more than 6% against the US dollar. Now this line shows the US dollar strenghening since the beginning of November when these protests began. Singapore Airline is canceling some flights to Bangkok in January and February because of falling demand. Tourism accounts for around 7% of Thailand's GDP. And a travel agency association says the number of domestic visitors to Bangkok has fallen 20% because of the unrest. That's a drop of about 400,000 people. International visitor numbers are down about 8%. The association says the biggest decrease are among Japanese tourists who are sensitive to political turmoil. Despite that, the tourism authority estimates the number of people visiting Thailand in the whole of 2013 was up by 17%. Now these protests stand firmly and aim to debuild the current government propose which is seen as a move by the prime minister I to allow her brother, the former prime minister T to return from exile. He had been ousted in 2006. Now the prime minister I has dissovled parliament and called for snap election in early February but Maggi that has not alleviated the tension or the impact on the Thai economy.