BANGKOK, 5 May 2015 – The Ministry of Finance has admitted that Thailand’s export sector suffers from several factors and would likely contract this year, citing projections for gross domestic product of less than 3.7 percent this year.
The ministry revealed that the export sector recovered at a slower rate than it had previously expected. The ministry now forecasts the sector to contract in 2015.
It blamed the economic slowdown of China, Thailand’s major trading partner. China’s first quarter economic growth was at -14.4 percent with a 7 percent annual growth predicted. The figure shrank from the earlier predicted 7.2 percent.
The ministry said that international factors affecting the local export sector are European Union (EU)’s debt payment plan and this month’s UK general election.
Meanwhile, it said the local factors are problems surrounding Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing and the downgrade of the Department of Civil Aviation. These negative factors are expected to cost Thailand at least 319 million dollars per year, inevitably suppressing the Kingdom’s economic growth.
