The government is maintaining its target for GDP growth of 3 percent this year, according to Kobsak Pootrakool, deputy secretary-general to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.(Photo: bangkokpost.com) Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai government is maintaining its target forGDP growth of 3 percent this year, with a series of stimulus measures to boosteconomic growth.
Deputy Secretary-general to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha for politicalaffairs Kobsak Pootrakool held a sub-committee meeting on October 4 to review economicdevelopment.
He said the meeting’s assessments of figures in the second quarter and thefirst two months of the third quarter lead it to believe 3 percent isachievable.
The tourism sector will be the main driver of the economy this year, whileexport is expected to slow down, he said, adding the country will welcome some20 million foreign arrivals in the second half.
During the first eight months of 2019, there were 26.5 million foreign visitors,generating 1.29 trillion THB (42.4 million USD) in revenue, up 2.9 percent fromthe same time last year.
According to Kobsak, the fourth quarter is normally the high season fortourism, and the government expects 14 million visitors in the remaining fourmonths of the year, pushing foreign visitors to 40.5 million for the year.
The Tourism and Sports Ministry targeted 39.8 million foreign tourists,generating 2.04 trillion THB in revenue.
Kobsak said the economic cabinet will have a meeting on October 11, and will considernew tourism stimulus measures to increase the number of foreign arrivals aswell as tourists’ spending.
The Thai economy grew at its slowest rate in five years in the second quarterdue to the US-China trade tension as well as the strong baht that affectedexport and tourism.
Earlier, Kasikorn Research Centre (K-Research) slashed its 2019 GDP growthforecast from the previous projection of 3.1 percent to 2.8 percent amid theescalating US-China trade dispute. The research house also cut its exportgrowth outlook from zero to a 1 percent contraction for this year aftershipments shrank 2.2 percent year-on-year in the first eight months.
It predicted the Thai economy to grow at 2.5-3 percent, and exports to fall 2percent in 2020./.
VNA
