Thai economy expected to recover in 2022's first quarter

Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand’s herd immunity can be reached with 100 million vaccines administered by the end of 2021, with economic recovery forecast thanks to 1.1 million more international tourists in the first quarter of 2022, according to the Thammasat University Research and Consultancy Institute (TU-RAC)’s research.

As reported by the local English-language daily The Nation, Associate Professor Suthikorn Kingkaew, a research project manager at TU-RAC, said that over the past two years, Thailand had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in various perspectives, including economy, society, and livelihood, due to its heavy reliance on other countries for revenue, such as tourism, exports, and inward investment.

The study found that COVID-19 impacted Thailand’s economy and society in eight major areas, including public debt, private debt, household debt, tourism, and unemployment.

Suthikorn went on to say that the Thai Government has aimed to administer 100 million doses by the end of 2021 to achieve herd immunity, speed up the reopening of tourist cities, and ultimately fully reopen the country in the next phase.

It is projected that Thailand will be able to manufacture a total of 260-295 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2022, he added.

Suthikorn said if vaccine management, however, proceeds as planned, the numbers of new cases and deaths should drop to 2,500 and 40 respectively by December 2021. This decline will affect the economy in Q4/2021, with the number of international visitors expected to increase by almost 300,000.

He added that such numbers will drive the domestic economy, boosting the capacity utilisation of the industrial sector by 10.28 percent to 70.39 and causing the private investment index to rise by 6.95 percent while reducing the total number of unemployed in the social security system by about 450,000 or 32.23 percent year on year./.