Illustrative photo (Source: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/) Bangkok (VNA) – The Kasikorn Research Centre (K-Research) has revised down Thailand’s economic growth this year to 2.5 percent from the initial projection of 2.8 percent and projected the next year’s growth at 2.7 percent.
K-Research’s economists said they lowered the growth projections due to lackluster export performance, less-than-expected overall investment and delay in the enactment of budget expenditure bill for the fiscal year 2020.
Nattaporn Triratanasirikul, K-Research Assistant Managing Director, said the economic growth next year is projected to grow 2.7 percent or within a projection range of 2.5-3.0 percent.
Meanwhile, exports may continue to shrink due to poor economic performance of Thailand’s major export markets, the US-China trade war which is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon as well as the stronger Thai baht, amid the expectation of more Fed’s rate cuts which will put greater pressure on the US dollar.
Last month, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) reported the Thai economy grew 2.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, driven mainly by increases in private and government consumption and investment, slightly improving from the 2.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter but lower than the 2.8 percent in the first quarter.
The NESDC also cut its 2019 GDP forecast to 2.6 percent, from an earlier view of 2.7 percent to 3.2 percent./.
VNA
