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Thailand’s Finance Ministry Maintains GDP Growth Forecasts For 2023
(CTN NEWS) – BANGKOK – According to an official, exports would slow down this year, but Thailand’s finance ministry reaffirmed its 3.8% economic growth projection for 2023 on Friday.
This was made possible by a rebound in domestic demand and tourism.
According to Pornchai Thiraveja, director of the ministry’s fiscal policy office, the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia will probably grow by 3.0% in 2022, down from a prior projection of 3.4%, as exports, public investment, and private consumption slow down.
Next month, the official gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for 2022 are expected to be made public. The region’s lowest growth rate in 2021 was 1.5% for GDP.
Containers are loaded onto a shipping vessel at Klong Toey port. Mr Pornchai says export growth is expected to slow this year in line with weak demand from major trading partners.
Fiscal measures would only be employed when necessary and will be targeted, according to Pornchai, who added that the economy is still recovering and that growth will reach pre-COVID levels in 2022.
In addition, he noted that since international travel regulations have been loosened, the tourism industry has been growing gradually.
With 11.15 million international tourists arriving in Thailand last year, the key tourism sector was only beginning to revive, Thailand’s economic recovery has lagged behind that of other Southeast Asian countries.
Thailand has secured 1.34 million foreign tourists since the start of the year.
Pornchai predicted that the reopening of China would help the country welcome 27.5 million more foreign visitors this year than the previous projection of 21.5 million.
/ bangkokpost
This year, the administration anticipates at least 5 million Chinese visitors, which is nearly half the number from the year before the pandemic.
An all-time high of approximately 40 million foreign visitors arrived in total in 2019, spending 1.91 trillion baht ($58.07 billion). Around 12% of the GDP was made up of tourism.
However, Pornchai warned that due to a global slowdown, exports, another important development engine, may only gain 0.4% this year rather than 2.5% as anticipated earlier.
The rising baht do not aid exports after averaging 35.07 per dollar last year; the ministry forecast that the baht will average 32.5 this year.
Pornchai noted that Thailand is one of the nations likely to continue its economic recovery.
According to Pornchai, the average headline inflation rate for this year is predicted to be 2.8%, down from a 24-year high of 6.08% last year, which was significantly higher than the central bank’s goal range of 1% to 3%.
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