The Bank of Thailand (BOT) is confident that Thailand’s economic growth in the second quarter of this year will rise after improved performance in the first quarter, which saw growth increase to 1.5%, against earlier projection of 0.8%.
Sakkapop Panyanukul, director of the BOT’s Financial Markets Department, said that the 1.5% growth is a good sign, adding that second-quarter growth has the tendency to increase year on year.
Meanwhile, inflation in April increased by 0.19%, after six consecutive months of negative increases, partly due to price reductions for fresh food and pork.
Sakkapop said that the central bank has been monitoring the prices of about 400 products closely and has seen most prices remain unchanged, which would indicate that the purchasing power of the consumer is not as predicted.
Inflation for the whole year is projected at 0.6%, against a framework of 1%-3%. Exports in April increased, compared to a 10% contraction in March, as the central bank predicts that exports for the whole year will increase by only 2%, which is quite low, said Sakkapop.
