Bangkok (VNA) – The value of Thailand’s customs-cleared exports rose 8.7% in December 2024 from a year earlier, the country's Ministry of Commerce said on January 23.
The reading was slightly higher than a forecast 8.15% increase year-on-year for December in a Reuters poll, as well as November’s 8.2% rise.
The ministry is maintaining its export growth target of 2–3% for 2025.
In a statement, the ministry said the US dollar value of exports, a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second largest economy, grew 5.4% in 2024 to a record 301 billion USD.
Imports expanded 14.9% year-on-year in December, above a forecast rise of 13.65%. That led to a trade deficit of 10.6 million USD.
For the whole year 2024, Thailand’s imports increased 6.3% from 2023, resulting in a trade deficit of 6.3 billion USD.
Particularly, Thailand’s rice export volume dropped 7.1% in December from the same period of 2023, but rose 13.4% to 9.95 million tonnes in the whole of 2024.
According to the Thai Rice Exporters Association, the country expects rice shipments to drop to about 7.5 million tonnes in 2025 due to more competition from India, the world's biggest rice exporter, and less demand from Indonesia./.
