BANGKOK, 6 Dec 2013 – The Construction Institute of Thailand (CIT) has revealed that the 1 trillion baht investment target in the construction sector this year is unlikely to be realized, and that the industry’s growth next year might still be on a slow pace.
CIT Director Chakporn Oonjitt stated this year’s declining growth in the construction industry is in line with the Bank of Thailand’s readjusted national growth forecast at lower than 3%.
The construction industry previously set its growth target for this year at 1 trillion baht or an 8 to 8.5% increase from that of last year.
Mr. Chakporn expected the same sluggish pace of growth next year, considering the declining number of construction contracts between the Government and the private sector. He said prospects were not bright as construction of condominium and housing projects has also been on a decline since the middle of this year.
However he expressed hopes that the Government’s 350 billion baht water and floods management projects and the 2.2 trillion infrastructure development projects would breathe life into the construction industry next year to a certain degrees.
He attributed the lack of the Government investment as the main reason for the industry’s missing target. Mr. Chakporn said the Government’s investment in the third quarter stood at only 120 billion baht, a significant decrease from last year’s 140 billion baht, adding that the overall Q3 investment value reduced by 2% compared to the same period last year.
