TMB to raise Thailand's GDP growth forecast in 2017

BANGKOK, May 4 (TNA) - Bangkok-based TMB Bank says that it will publicly release its upward forecast of Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2017 next month, thanks mainly to the country's expanding exports. Head of TMB's economic analysis center Bencharong Suwankiri told journalists on May 3 that Thailand's GDP growth this year is now likely to be higher than 3.3 per cent as earlier forecast and the new estimated figure will be publicly report by next month. Bencharong reasoned that Thailand's export growth in the first quarter of this year was higher than 2 per cent as earlier expected, while the domestic tourism and mega government investment projects have also been growing, all of which should boost the country's GDP growth rate in the second half of this year and even the entire 2017 on average. Bencharong pointed out that the expanding Thai economy should raise demand for loans, especially from local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to the senior analyst, loans extended to local SMEs are expected to, thus, expand by 5.7 per cent year-on-year this year, from 1.4 per cent year-on-year last year. The senior TMB analyst also assessed that non-performing loans (NPLs) of local SMEs should gradually drop in the second half of this year due to their rising revenues from expanding Thai exports and domestic consumption, particularly in the third and fourth quarters of this year. However, the senior analyst admitted a latest survey found that the confidence index of business operators over the next three months dropped to 49.4, from 50.9 in the previous survey, due to their concerns over rising costs in all Thai regions, from 4.8 per cent to expectedly 7.2 per cent on average, due to higher prices of raw materials, fuel and wages (TNA)