BANGKOK, 1 August 2014 – The Bank of Thailand asserted on Thursday the Thai economy was clearly in the recovery phase, with export growth increasing and private sector spending on the rise. However, the economy was projected to expand by just 1.5% for the entire year.
Mr. Don Nakhonthap, director of the BOT’s Macroeconomic and Monetary Policy Department, said that based on the second quarter figures, the Thai economy was definitely recovering. He explained that the economy improved in June due to expansion of exports and private sector spending. Especially noteworthy was the rise in perishable items consumption, which came about due to an increase in consumer confidence. However, industrial manufacturing shrank 6.6% primarily because of weak orders from Asia and the Middle East, and also because there had earlier been stimulation of automobile and hard disk drive manufacturing. Overall, the economic growth in the second quarter of 2014 was negative 0.4% on-year. This was still an improvement over the 0.6% negative growth experienced in the first quarter. According to Mr. Don, the Thai economy is expected to expand roughly along the projected rate of 1.5% for year 2014.
He added that exports grew by 3.8% in June due to improvement in petrochemical and machinery exportation. However, the Bank of Thailand was not confident the export sector would be able to grow by 3% for the year, as targeted; this would be attributed to the decline in prices of agricultural products.
