Private investment, domestic tourism boost Thai economy

BANGKOK, February 28 (TNA) - The Policy Office (FPO), under the Thai Ministry of Finance, reports that the expanding private investment and consumption, as well as domestic tourism have become major forces to drive forward the national economy early this year. FPO Spokesman Pornchai Thiravej told journalists of the update on February 27, acknowledging sale volumes of automobiles that hit the highest record in five years in January 2019 and growing sale volumes of cement in the same month that showed the expanding private investment should reflect the sound prospect of the national economy early this year. Besides, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Thailand that reached 3.72 million last month, a 4.9 per cent year-on-year increase but a 10.3 per cent year-on-year increase for Chinese tourist arrivals alone, earning the Kingdom over 195 billion baht, or a 2.4 per cent year-on-year expansion, should be another evidence of the sound national economic prospect early this year. The spokesman said Thailand's external and internal stability also remained sound last month, witnessed by the country's foreign exchange reserves that stood about 209 billion US dollars and general inflation that stood at only 0.3 per cent annually, while the unemployment rate stood at only 1 per cent of the country's total workforce. Meanwhile, the FPO projected that Thai exports, which shrank by 5.7 per cent year-on-year last month, should grow by 4.5 per cent year-on-year on average in 2019 due mainly to impacts from the unsettled trade war between the United States and China. The Thai Ministry of Commerce has, however, maintained the country's export growth target in 2019 at about 8 per cent year-on-year on average with its planned strategies towards the target. (TNA)