BANGKOK – Bank of Ayudhya has predicted that the Thai economy next year will likely expand by 3.2% – 3.5% and the baht currency will move in a range of 36.50 – 37.50 baht against the USD.
Head of Global Markets Group at Bank of Ayudhya Tak Bunnag said the Thai economy would likely grow by 2.9% in 2015 with investment by the public sector as a main drive. Other factors positively impacted the Thai economy this year included the growing tourism sector as well as low oil price and interest rates, said the banker.
The fragile global economic recovery, agricultural product price drop, high household debt and volatile financial markets are among the Thai economy’s negative factors in 2015.
As for the direction of the Thai currency, it has a tendency to weaken in the next three months. The bank also predicted that the U.S. would increase policy interest rate for the first time mid December 2015, resulting in gradual strengthening of the baht. It added that Thailand’s benchmark rate would be stable at 1.5% with a tendency to rise at the end of 2016 when the economy recovered more.
