Unilever projects Thai economy to grow by 4-5% this year

BANGKOK, February 12 (TNA) - Unilever, a globally-wellknown Anglo–Dutch multinational consumer goods company, has projected that the Thai economy should grow by 4-5 per cent on average this year, boosted by people's higher purchasing power in the wake of the government's new daily minimum wage hike, to 300 baht nationwide, enforced since January 1, 2013. With the optimistic view on the Thai economy, Unilever Thailand announced on Monday that it plans to invest some 2.8 billion baht in the Kingdom this year, about 2 billion baht of which will be for building a goods distribution centre in Chachoengsao province in the Thai East and the rest for opening a new manufacturing plant of household liquid products, and plans to employ additional 1,000 workers than last year. Bauke Rouwers, Chief Executive Office (CEO) of Unilever Group in Thailand, told journalists that the new investment plans came after his company found out that the Thai economy should sustain a 4-5 per cent growth in 2013. However, Rouwers cautioned that the vulnerable global economic recovery, especially in the United States, and rising inflation in Thailand should remain risk factors for his company's business operations in 2013, in terms of impacts on local consumers' purchasing power. (TNA)