Thai Exports Rise

The Thai Ministry of Commerce revealed figures of export growth for last year at 9.9%, the highest in the past six years, Bernama reported. Pimchanok Vonkorpon, director of the commerce ministry’s general trade policy and strategy office, said Thai exports continued to grow steadily for the past 10 months last year with export in December growing 8.6% worth $19.741 billion, while imports also increasing 16.6% worth $20.019 billion, showing a trade deficit of $278 million. Exports for the full year in 2017 showed the highest growth in six years at 9.9% amounted to $236.694 billion, a trade surplus of $13.930 billion, she said. The high growth was attributed to economic recovery of Thailand’s major trading countries, and satisfactory growth in Thai farming and agro-industrial products, she said. Growth of Thai exports in 2018 may be slower than in 2017. This is in line with growth outlook of Asian exports (excluding Japan) in 2018 which is expected to expand by 5.1%, a slower rate than 7.1% of 2017, according to survey of Asia Pacific Consensus as of December 2017.