A shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s economic figures in January showed signs of recovery with arebound evident in tourism, consumption, and exports, though privateinvestments have slowed down, the country’s Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) said.
Pornchai Theeravet,FPO director-general, said on February 28 that Thailand's exports expanded forsix consecutive months to 22.65 billion USD in January 2024, marking ayear-over-year increase of 10%.
He added that Thailandshowed signs of economic stability in January, which was reflected in theheadline inflation rate of 1.11%, while the core inflation rate was 0.52%.
The country’s publicdebt ratio to GDP as of the end of December came in at 61.3%, which was stillwithin the range allowed by the Financial Discipline Act.
He said anotherindicator of Thailand’s economic strength was the high level of foreignreserves at 221.6 billion USD.
According to the FPOdirector-general, private consumption in Thailand in January had improved fromthe previous month, reflected by the sale of cars which had risen 2.4%from the same month last year, and 9.4% from the previous month.
He added that thecollection of value-added tax (VAT) rose from the previous month by 1.1%, buthad dropped 2.7% compared to the same month last year. He said the averageincome of Thai farmers had also risen by 0.6% from January last year.
Meanwhile, Thailand’sconsumer confidence index rose to 62.9 points in January from 62 in December.He added that this index has been rising for six consecutive months and is atits highest in 47 months./.
