Good news for the Thais! Things seem to be turning around, promising an economic recovery, says a senior executive at Thailand’s stock exchange. The country GDP increased 2.9% from a year ago in the 3rd quarter, backed by domestic spending and exports.
The chief strategist and finance officer of the SET says that he is expecting a growth by around 3% in the next quarter. While sharing a bit of the Thai government future plan, he said that the government is planning to roll out new investments to drive the economy. To this, the Finance Minister announced plans to launch the $2.79 billion “Thailand Future Fund” in order to support infrastructure investments.
However, this plan is not just limited to long-term infrastructure investments, but also investments into the new sectors. It’s time to also think about the additional issues like how one can create short-term consumption and new investments in the private sector.
Well then growth in the latter half suffered higher risks than the first half because of the trade protectionist measures that were introduced by the US. But then these risks to Thailand are limited in the short run. Therefore, Thai exports in 2018 will expand in line with the global trade. EIC assesses that the merchandise exports value for the whole year will increase 8.5% YOY.
However, risks from the trade war can worsen that may have an impact on the global trade and Thai exports in the period ahead. Thus exporters must have coping strategies, including finding new markets or preparing for higher competitions in a few markets.
Besides, household income is expected to begin recovering though the debts remain a barrier. Moreover, workers’ wages outside the agricultural sector continued to improve since the starting of the year.
Coming to the country’s economic stability, it remains strong and is expected to provide a cushion against the volatilities from the many external factors. These include tightening monetary policies of the advanced economies, concerns on the risk of the trade war and a strong US dollar. However, it is viewed that because of Thailand’s economic stability and adequate liquidity risk from the external factors are fairly limited.
