Thailand growth slows as industry, tourism hit

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BANGKOK, Nov 24 (AFP): Thailand's economic growth slowed to four per cent in the third quarter of 2008, a state body said today, lower than expected amid falling tourist arrivals and the global financial crisis.
Gross domestic product growth was down from 5.3 per cent in the second quarter and six per cent in the first, prompting the National Economic and Social Development Board to revise its outlook for the year to 4.5 per cent.
The figure is down from the previous projection of 5.2 to 5.7 per cent GDP growth by the NESDB, a government think tank dealing with economic policy.
"We have to revise the growth projection down because the global economic slowdown is affecting our economy," said the board's secretary general, Ampon Kittiampol.
"Net exports are falling and local political turmoil is seriously deterring investment and tourism," he said.
Anti-government protests have been dragging on since late May, sending the stock market falling and leaving investors wary of the political outlook. Around 18,000 demonstrators took to the streets again Monday.
Tourist arrivals, meanwhile, dropped 1.7 per cent in the third quarter and plunged 16.5 per cent in September, the agency said, as oil prices, the credit crunch and the Bangkok protests battered one of Thailand's key money-earners.
Thai industry expanded at 6.1 per cent, down from 7.7 per cent in the second quarter and 9.5 per cent in the first quarter, and Ampon warned that the global financial crisis would continue taking its toll in Thailand.
"The world economic recession will have a strong effect on the Thai export sector in first half of the next year and private investment will continue to slow down," he said in a statement.
Growth in the first nine months of the year averaged 5.1 per cent, his agency said, and it forecast that inflation in 2008 would average 5.6 per cent.
His agency projected that the Thai economy would grow at three to four percent in 2009, while inflation is expected to drop to between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent.
Thailand's central bank has already lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2008 to between 4.3 and five per cent.