Thailand’s exports drop 4 percent in August

Illustrative image (Photo: AFP)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Thai Ministry of Commerce said on September 20 that the country’s exports dropped 4 percent in August from a year earlier after an unexpected rise in the previous month.

Accordingly, customs-cleared outbound shipments fetched 21.9 billion USD in August, largely thanks to front-loading imports to avoid the imposition of the US tariffs starting on September 1.

Moreover, the uncertainty of trade disputes clouds the global economy, causing a slowdown in most of Thailand’s major trading partners, including ASEAN and South Asia.

Falling global oil prices suppressed exports of oil-related products and an oversupply of agricultural products in the global market as well as baht appreciation are still downside risks for Thai shipments. In the first eight months of this year, Thailand’s exports contracted by 2.2 percent to 166 billion USD.

Director General of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office Pimchanok Vonkorpon said a variety of challenges, namely the global economic slowdown, a prolonged trade dispute between the US and China, and baht appreciation casts a shadow over Thai exports for the remaining months of 2019.

She said the Ministry of Commerce set an export growth target of 3 percent, maintaining mature markets, expanding to new areas, and restoring trade with long-lost trading partners in the second haft of this year.-VNA