Record heatwave and looming vote drive Thailand to cut power costs and ease peoples' plight

BANGKOK, April 25 (Bloomberg): Thailand’s government will cut power rates ahead of next month’s general election, in an effort to ease the plight of consumers and businesses grappling with sweltering temperatures.

April is traditionally hot in the Southeast Asian country, but it has been stifling for weeks this year, with levels earlier this month touching 45C (113F). The combination of humidity, wind and other factors recently pushed the heat index to a record of over 50C in parts of the country, including the tourist island of Phuket - an extra blow to a national economy already dented by suffocating haze keeping visitors away and making hundreds of thousands ill.