Thailand sees ‘signs of recovery’
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
BANGKOK, June 30 (Reuters): Thailand's central bank signalled on Monday that Southeast Asia's second-largest economy would avoid recession this quarter and said manufacturing and consumption "started to show signs of recovery" in May.
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) issued its assessment while releasing a set of data that showed the economy, battered by months of political tensions, still was generating weak data in May - during which the army took power.
The central bank, which earlier this month slashed its growth forecast for 2014, said gross domestic product in April-June will be up more than 1 per cent - meaning there won't be a second consecutive quarterly contraction.
For January-March, Thailand reported a 2.1 per cent contraction from the previous three months.
Don Nakornthab, a senior BOT official, said that from a year earlier, the economy is expected to shrink 0.4 per cent, compared with the first quarter's year-on-year contraction of 0.6 per cent
The central bank said Thailand had a current account deficit of $664 million in May, slightly larger than April's deficit.
Also, it said May exports declined 1.2 per cent from a year earlier - less than the 2.1 per cent fall the Commerce Ministry announced last week. Exports are equal to more than 60 per cent of the economy.
The BOT said is index on private consumption rose 0.5 per cent in May, compared with April, and was down 0.3 per cent from a year earlier.