Thai exports likely to grow by 5.5% in 2018

BANGKOK, March 2 (TNA) - The Thai National Shippers Council (TNSC) has initially projected that the country's exports should grow by about 5.5 per cent year-on-year on average in 2018. TNSC Chairwoman Ghayapad Tantipipatpong told journalists on Friday of the projection based on the assumption that the Thai currency stands at 31.5 baht a US dollar +/- 0.5 baht a US dollar this year. Ghayapad said the initial projection followed Thailand's export growth by as high as 17.6 per cent year-on-year in January 2018, the highest rate in five years and two months, totally worth about 20.10 billion US dollars or about 652.51 billion baht, or about 7.1 per cent year-on-year increase. Ghayapad anticipated that Thailand's export growth should further grow by 7-8 per cent year-on-year in February, totally worth about 20 billion US dollars, but noting that Thailand faced a trade deficit of about 119 million US dollars or about 12.13 billion baht in January due to more imports of capital goods and raw materials by business operators amid the appreciation of the Thai baht with cheaper prices in terms of the Thai currency. Meanwhile, TNSC Secretary-General Chaicharn Charoensuk pointed out that positive factors cushioning Thai exports this year should include the recovering world economy, especially in such Thailand's major trading partners as China, Japan, the United States and neighboring Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), known as the CLMV group, as well as countries in South Asia, Russia and those in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Besides, rising world oil prices and agricultural products have raised the purchasing power of oil and farm produce exporting nations on the world market. The TNSC secretary-general cautioned, however, that risk factors remain for Thailand's export growth this year, including the appreciation and unstable Thai baht against the US dollar and the United States' trade protectionist measures and changing key interest rate, as well as Thailand's problems of a shortage of containers and overcrowding at the main Bangkok Port. (TNA)