Thai exports drop by less than that of competitors: Trade office

By The Nation

 

Pimchanok

 

 

Despite the baht appreciating to Bt31.39 per US dollar as of the end of August, a 2.2 per cent bump over the same period of 2018, Thailand’s overall exports are stronger than those of jurisdictions with weakened currency, including South Korea, the UK, Taiwan and Malaysia, according to the Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) of the Ministry of Commerce.

 

TPSO director Pimchanok Wonkhoporn said that although Thai baht continues to strengthen, the impact on the export sector remains minor in comparison to other trade rivals and partners whose currencies have been weakened due to a political situation or international dispute.

 

“Among our trade rivals and partners, South Korea’s currency depreciated the most at 6.5 per cent,” she said. Next were the EU (6.3 per cent), the UK (6.2 per cent), China (5.3 per cent), India (5.1 per cent), Taiwan (4.0 per cent), Malaysia (4.0 per cent), and Vietnam (2.1 per cent).

 

“However, Thailand’s exports are still better than these countries,” said Pimchanok. “In the first seven months of 2019, Thai exports shrank by only 1.9 per cent, while South Korean suffered from a 8.9 per cent decrease. Malaysia’s export declined by 4.9 per cent, the UK by 3.5 per cent and Taiwan by 2.9 per cent.”

 

The director add exports of agricultural products to certain markets continue to grow amid the overall shrinking of exports. For example, overall rice exports declined by 18.5 per cent, but rice exports to the US (13.8 per cent of the market share) increased by 13.9 per cent. Meanwhile, overall corn exports declined by 20.7 per cent, but corn exports to Vietnam (23.2 per cent of market share) increased by 29.2 per cent, she said.

 

“Products that see a prominent increase in exports are fresh and frozen fruits, which went up by 44.9 per cent. Furthermore, exports of lifestyle products such as cosmetics and skincare, motorcycles and refrigerators also increased by 15.3, 12.3 and 3.3 per cent respectively.”

 

Pimchanok added that factors other than currency apprecation may affect exports, including market trends and product quality.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30376110

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-09-12

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Let me make sure I'm understanding this. They are comparing their negative exports to other countries that are in the red.

That's like saying we are the best of the worst!

 

So the total rice market declined by nearly 19%. The US which is only 14% of the total market grew by 14%. My God, they are really trying to spin this.

Only at the beginning of the year they were saying that they wanted to export 10m tonnes of rice (down 14% on 2018) so they were way off the mark at -19%

 

It takes time for companies to move their sourcing and some might be in long-term contracts.

Let's see where the Thai economy is in a years time!!

 

Edited September 12, 20196 yr by Chelseafan

Maybe comparing SE Asian GDP's would be a more accurate measure?

Hot money inflows at BoT still trump the economy.  To Hell with western tourists and exports—just keep that hot money flowing...

how can we believe/trust any of this BS.... even in the worse case scenarios they always come up with great (fake) numbers

23 hours ago, webfact said:

Products that see a prominent increase in exports are fresh and frozen fruits, which went up by 44.9 per cent.

Course they did. they have undercut their rivals by having a Baldrick style cunning plan of not paying workers to reduce costs

4 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Course they did. they have undercut their rivals by having a Baldrick style cunning plan of not paying workers to reduce costs

Yes an impressive figure but from a low base. Thailand exports about $2.3b of fruit with Durian making up about a quarter of this. Fruit isn't even in their top 10 list of exports.

 

Edited September 13, 20196 yr by Chelseafan

19 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

Let me make sure I'm understanding this. They are comparing their negative exports to other countries that are in the red.

That's like saying we are the best of the worst!

That's exactly what they are saying.

 

They are like little children.

 

"Oh yeah?! Well, you did even worse than us! We are better than you!"

7 hours ago, legend49 said:

Maybe comparing SE Asian GDP's would be a more accurate measure?

Wash your mouth out!

Out of the 8 ASEAN nations Thailand would come second last just in ahead of Brunei.

Madame Smug is not allowed to go around saying things like that. She would be in deep poo, just like that woman who circulated the photos of the PM eating out of a foam container.