BANGKOK, 26 June 2015 – Thailand’s export revenue in May 2015 shrank by 5.01% to US$18,429m., the fifth consecutive month of negative growth since January, according to Director-General of the Office of Trade Policy and Strategy Somkiat Trairatpan.
The contraction puts the five-month export revenue to total US$88,694m., a shrink of 4.2%. Mr. Somkiat said a similar trend developed in various countries including Australia, France, Japan and the U.S. due to the uncertainty of global economy.
The causes of the decrease in export revenue are the ongoing low oil price which fell 39.7% in May, resulting in lower earnings from oil-related products. Sale of agricultural and agro-industrial products such as canned tuna and sugar also fell. Rubber exports dropped 14.4%.
Likewise, import value in the month decreased by 19.97% to US$16,012m. The country still recorded a trade suplus of US$2,417m. in the first five months of this year.
Despite the gloomy world economic condition, the Commerce Ministry said it would maintain the export growth target of 1.2%. It was confident that the US and Indochina markets would improve in the second half of 2015. Besides, Thailand still maintains its shares in regular markets like the U.S., China, Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan.
The director-general admitted that the drought disaster in Thailand would possibly send negative effects to Thai exports next year due to lower agricultural produce throughout 2015.
