Thailand's rising MPI shows expanding economy

BANGKOK, June 30 (TNA) - Thailand's manufacturing production index (MPI) has been expanding since early this year, showing a good sign of the growing national economy. Weerasak Suphaprasert, Deputy Director-General of the Office of Industrial Economics (OIE), under the Thai Ministry of Industry, told journalists on Friday that the country's MPI expanded by 1.4 per cent year-on-year in May 2017. Weerasak said the rising MPI has resulted in an average 0.15-per cent-expansion of Thailand's MPI during the first five months of this year. The OIE deputy chief pointed out that the expanding MPI represents a clear sign of the growing Thai economy. The OIE deputy chief also revealed that Thailand's exports of manufacturing products, excluding gold bars, have expanded by 17.6 per cent this year, while imports of capital goods and raw materials and semi-finished products, excluding gold bars, have expanded by 15.6 per cent and 21.5 per cent respectively. According to the OIE deputy chief, major Thai manufacturing products include electronic parts, rubber products, frozen chicken, petroleum fuels and cooking oil. (TNA)