BANGKOK – Thailand’s export sector continues to suffer from the global economic slowdown. The latest figures from November 2019 show a 7.39 percent continuous decline in value. Oil refinery closedowns for maintenance have also caused a decline in petroleum exports, resulting in the overall export figure in 11 months of this year to be at negative 2.7 percent.
The Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) Director General PimchanokVonkorpon has reported the latest export value in November 2019 at 19.656 billion U.S. dollar, showing a 7.39 percent decline.
The decline in the figure was due to lower performing key export products, especially petroleum and chemicals which suffered a 29.1 percentdecline, and plastic beads which showed an 11.6 percent decline. This was due to closures of oil refineries for maintenance in ASEAN countries since September, expected to have a continuous effect until the end of the year.
The export of farm products shows a 3.6 percent decrease, especially tapioca, rice, and rubber.
The global economic slowdown has affected the export of these products to key markets such as the U.S., the EU, Japan, and ASEAN. This has resulted in the overall trade value from January to November this year of 227.09 billion U.S. dollars, showing a 2.77 percent decline. The overall export value this year is expected to conclude at a negative 2 percent, should the export value in December alone reach 20 billion U.S. dollar.
The TPSO director said today this performance corresponds to the global trend, while Thailand continues to maintain its export value better than many other countries.
Goods imported into Thailand in November 2019 were recorded at 19.108 billion U.S. dollar, showing a 13.78 percent decrease due to the closure of oil refineries leading to a reduction in crude oil imports. Thailand continues to enjoy a trade surplus of 548 million U.S. dollars. The overall import figure for January – November 2019 is 218.081 billion U.S. dollars, with a 9 billion U.S. dollar trade surplus.
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