Goods are loaded at a port in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s exports will recover next year while inflation will stay within its target range of 1-3%, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).
The freshly-announced minutes of the BoT’s November 29 monetary policy meeting showed that while Thailand’s economic recovery remains on course, structural issues might limit the positive influence of the global economy on exports and credit quality must be monitored, reported the Bangkok Post.
The BoT noted that financial conditions have become more stringent, prompting increased scrutiny of the credit quality for small businesses and household sectors.
At the meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously voted to keep its one-day repurchase interest rate unchanged at 2.5%, the highest in a decade, after hiking it by 200 basis points since August last year to curb inflation.
Thailand's economy grew much lower than expected, at 1.5% in the July-September quarter from a year earlier, the slowest pace this year, on weak exports and government spending. The BoT will next review policy rates on February 7, 2024.
It forecast headline inflation to average 1.3% this year, down from 1.6% projected earlier. The BoT predicted 2024 inflation will stand at 2.0% but this will not factor in the potential impact of the government’s 500-billion-THB (13.9 billion USD) digital wallet stimulus programme.
Separately, BoT officials predicted that tourist arrivals will return to pre-pandemic levels by late 2025, driven by non-Chinese visitors.
The central bank has revised its forecast of Chinese arrivals in 2024 to 6.2 million from 7.5 million predicted earlier. In 2025, the central bank expects 7.8 million travellers from China - still below the nearly 11 million recorded in 2019, when the country welcomed a record 40 million foreign arrivals in total./.
