BANGKOK, Nov 27 – Thailand’s exports in October dropped 0.67 per cent year-on-year, worth US$19.3 million in value.
Urawee Ngaorungruang, deputy director-general of International Trade Promotion Department, said that exports last month were better than September when exports dropped 7.09 per cent.
She said exports to the main markets still decrease, particularly Japan, where the figures have dropped for six consecutive months by -12 per cent. However, the US market saw an expansion of 6.5 per cent and the European Union by 7 per cent.
Exported goods with declining percentages included electrical appliances, construction materials, rice, frozen seafood, canned food and processed food.
The total value of the exports in the first ten months of this year stood at US$191.5 billion, a 0.02-per cent drop year-on-year.
Commerce Ministry, however, believed both November and December would be able to earn from exports at US$20 billion per month, but that depends on local politics and the global economy, and thus push the country’s exports for 2013 to expand at one per cent as forecast.
Ms Urawee believed next year’s exports could grow at least 5 per cent, while imports from Jan-Oct this year grew 1.4 per cent year-on-year, worth US$210.9 billion in value and resulting in a trade deficit of US$19.4 billion.
