JETRO:Business confidence in Thailand is on the rise

BANGKOK, July 8 (TNA) - Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) reports that confidence in the Thai economy among Japanese business operators has been on the rise in line with the recovering Thai economy. Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who oversees economic affairs, told a seminar, entitled “Bangkok Nikkei Forum 2016”, in the capital on July 7 that a latest JETRO survey found a 7 per cent-rise in Japanese business operators' confidence in the Thai economy, after a contraction in the second half of 2015. Based on the latest JETRO survey, Somkid said Japanese business operators' confidence in the Thai economy is likely to further grow by 17 per cent over the next six months. Somkid acknowledged that many indicators have shown more positive signs of the Thai economy, namely the Manufacturing Production Index (MPI), which has kept rising over the past couple of months, and confident indices have hit their highest levels in 10 months. The deputy prime minister pointed out that Thailand has also benefited from being upgraded recently to the Tier 2 watch list in the US government's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2016, from the Tier 3 lowest category announced in mid-2014. The deputy premier, thus, projected that the total value of real investment in the Thai industrial sector should reach 600-700 billion baht this year and the country's gross domestic product (GDP) should grow by over 3 per cent in the second quarter of this year, on top of its 3.2 per cent expansion in the first quarter. (TNA)