BANGKOK (NNT) – The value of Thailand’s exports in the second quarter of 2021 was recorded at 67.8 billion USD – an historically high level. Exports increased 36.2 percent – the most recorded in 44 quarters – from 5.0-percent growth in the previous quarter, according to the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council.
Export items of increased value included passenger cars (89.1 percent), pickups & trucks (190.5 percent), vehicle parts & accessories (102.2 percent), electrical equipment (24.6 percent), computers and parts (37.6 percent), rubber products (40.0 percent), rubber (97.3 percent), and cassava (48.2 percent).
The Thai Economy in the second quarter of 2021 increased 7.5 percent, compared to a 2.6-percent contraction in the previous quarter. After being seasonally adjusted, the economy grew by 0.4 percent from the first quarter. In the first half of 2021, the Thai economy expanded by 2.0 percent.
Meanwhile, accommodation and food service activities contracted by 17.2 percent, further declining from 37.1-percent in the preceding period. The number of foreign tourists dropped 99.4 percent and the average occupancy rate was 12.20 percent.
On economic stability, the unemployment rate was 1.9 percent, slightly lower than 2.0 percent in the previous quarter and also 2.0 percent in the same quarter last year. At the end of June 2021, international reserves stood at 247 billion USD and public debt was at 8.83 trillion Baht or 56.1 percent of GDP.
The Thai economy in 2021 is expected to grow in the range of 0.7 – 1.2 percent, recovering from a 6.1-percent contraction in 2020, and revised down from the range of 1.5 – 2.5 percent in the previous projection (as of May 17th, 2021).
Economic growth over the remainder of the year is likely to be subject to the following vital limitations and risks, including uncertainty arising from the new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fragile financial position of both households and businesses amid a high unemployment rate, with additional impact from the resurgence of COVID-19, risks affecting exports, and the manufacturing sector being affected by an outbreak of the virus in industrial areas, coupled with the constraints on the global value chain and international logistics, and volatility in the global economic and financial situation.
Policy management in the remaining months of 2021 should put an emphasis on containing the domestic outbreak, providing remedial assistance to affected people, implementing measures to support economic recovery once the outbreak can be contained, by focusing on policy to promote domestic spending and the tourism sector, preparing areas for a resumption of economic activities, implementing surveillance measures to prevent a resurgence of the new outbreak, and helping entrepreneurs to resume their usual business operations, encouraging the export of goods, maintaining growth momentum with government expenditure and public investment, stimulating private investment and preserving the domestic political environment, as well as maintaining economic stability.
