BoT confident Thai economy will recover well in Q4

BANGKOK, 1 December 2009 (NNT) – The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is confident in the potential of the Thai economy to recover in the fourth quarter of 2009 despite some hiccups in the October economic growth, according to Domestic Economy Department Senior Director, Suchart Sakkankosone.

Mr Suchart admitted that the economic growth in Thailand for October was shrinking compared to September in many sectors from production, industry, investment from private sector and consumption. Production of hard disk drives and the electronic industry was reported to slow down.

The decreased budget injection from the public sector, a delay of the annual budget bill announcement and slow budget disbursement of the Strong Thailand scheme were also held accountable for the smaller growth. The government spent only about 90 billion THB in October while it spent 172 billion THB in September.

The director was confident that the economy in the last quarter this year would improve as a result of the increasing income of farmers, a higher employment rate, rising revenue from the tourism sector and less contraction in the export sector. The national export for October shrank by 0.6% with positive signals. He said the smaller economic growth in October would not affect the economic growth for the last quarter.

Private investment was reported to decline in line with the reduction of confidence among businesspeople towards the Thai economy in the next three months. The confidence figure was reduced from 54.6 in September to 53 in October amid concerns over the 76 project suspension in Map Ta Phut industrial estate, economic fluctuation, politics and rising oil prices.