NESDB:Thai economy will likely grow 5.5-6.5% in 2012

BANGKOK, February 20 (TNA) - The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) projected Monday that Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) will likely expand by 5.5-6.5 per cent this year, boosted by post-flood industrial rebound and new public investment projects. NESDB Secretary-General Arkhom Termpittayapaisith assessed that Thailand's GDP would improve this year due to the restored and accelerated production of local factories and the government's new investment in water management, saying that the latest-projected GDP growth of 5.5-6.5 per cent, instead of 4.5-5.5 per cent earlier forecast, was on a key condition that flooding would not recur this year. Arkhom also predicted that Thailand's investment should grow by 14.2 per cent, consumption by 4.4 per cent, inflation by 3.5-4 per cent and exports by 17.2 per cent in 2012, cautioning that remaining risk factors for the expanding Thai economy include uncontrollable natural disasters and lingering world economic slowdown, mainly caused by the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, the fluctuations of world oil prices and foreign exchange rates and even labor shortages in some industries. The NESDB chief conceded, however, that impacts from Thailand's massive flooding late last year were greater than expected, as the country's GDP expanded by only 0.1 per cent on average in 2011, instead of 3.8 per cent as earlier anticipated, caused by a GDP shrink by 9 per cent in the flood-hit fourth quarter of 2011, or by an equivalent of 328 billion baht. (TNA)