Thailand's economic growth remains sound

BANGKOK, July 25 (TNA) - Bangkok-based Siam Commercial Bank has predicted that the Thai economy should, overall, keep growing well this year, mainly cushioned by domestic spending, despite a slowdown in the country's export growth. Siam Commercial Bank's chief economist and executive vice president Sutapa Amornvivat projected Wednesday that the Thai economy should grow by 5.6-5.8 per cent this year as earlier expected, thanks to domestic consumption, declining energy prices, improving industrial production and investment in machines to replace flood-damaged ones in the second half of this. Sutapa also foresaw that Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) should grow by 4.7-5.2 per cent next year, boosted by the government's spending on water management projects, as well as expanding industrial production and the growing Indochina market. The senior economist cautioned, however, that a major risk factor of the Thai economy is the ongoing European economic crisis which has affected Thai exports, assessing that in a worst case, Thai exports should grow by only 8 per cent year-on-year in 2012, instead of 11 per cent as earlier targeted, and that it should take at least 4-5 years to solve the European economic crisis. Besides, Thai exporters, in the medium and long terms, will likely be excluded from the European Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and Thailand will consequently lose its price competitiveness and markets to other competitors. (TNA)