BANGKOK, 31 October 2011 – The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has revealed an economic slowdown in September, particularly in the industrial, agricultural, tourism and export sectors, owing to the dismal global economy and the flood situation in Thailand.
According to the BoT’s economic report for September 2011, the expansion rate of the Thai economy was found to be declining in line with the world economic recession. The production of many types of goods, including hard disk drives, textiles and garments and electronics, has been impacted. Nonetheless, the production of food and beverages as well as automobile is still satisfactory.
Meanwhile, the flood crisis in many provinces of Thailand has caused the growth of the agricultural production to drop to only 1.1 percent from 3.7 percent in August, in contrast to the soaring prices of produce.
The tourism sector also expanded less at 23.5 percent, as opposed to 35.7 percent in August, with the number of tourists shrinking to 1.5 million from 1.72 million and the occupancy rate down to 54.1 percent from 57.1 percent.
In addition, Thai exports also slowed down in line with the production slump, especially the export of electronics to Europe and Japan.
The central bank projected that the world economic downturn and the domestic flood crisis would remain two major negative factors to the Thai economy for another period of time, considering the waning public confidence.
