JSCCIB:Thai economy should grow by 3.8-4.5% in 2018

BANGKOK, March 6 (TNA) - Thailand's Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) has forecast that the national economic growth should stand around 3.8-4.5 per cent year-on-year this year, when Thai exports should also grow by 3.5-6 per cent year-on-year. Chen Namchaisiri, Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), told journalists of the projected figures by the country's three major private institutions on Tuesday, saying that the country's export, tourism, consumption and rebounding private investment should mainly boost the national economic growth in 2018. The FTI chairman cautioned that there are remaining risk factors against Thailand's economic and export growth this year, including the unstable Thai baht, possible negative impacts from the United States' new trade measures, especially a planned imported tariff hike on steel and aluminum. According to the FTI chairman, the planned US imported tariff hike, if imposed, would mean a trade protectionist policy and could lead to retaliation measures from Washington's trading partners, the impacts of which could, more or less, affect Thailand. (TNA)