Thai May factory output falls 23.2%, worse than forecast

[webfact]

Thai May factory output falls 23.2%, worse than forecast

 

FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers stand at a port in Bangkok March 30, 2015. TREUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's manufacturing production index (MPI) in May dropped 23.19% from a year earlier, led by lower production of cars, petroleum and air conditioners due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, the industry ministry said on Monday.

 

That compares with a forecast for a drop of 21.0% in a Reuters poll, and against April's revised decline of 18.22%.

 

Capacity utilisation in May was 52.84%, compared with April's revised 51.27%.

 

(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Ed Davies)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-06-29

 

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[zzzzz]

add in a drop of 80%++ in tourism and Thailand is in for a shaky future.

[billd766]

38 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

add in a drop of 80%++ in tourism and Thailand is in for a shaky future.

Yet still the Thai baht stays high.

 

I,for one, have no idea why.

[Chelseafan]

10 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Yet still the Thai baht stays high.

 

I,for one, have no idea why.

 

SImply put, investors get better returns with the baht than they do with most currencies including the dollar.

 

[Cake Monster]

These are not good figures for the Thai Economy.

For sure it will reflect upon the Workforce, and unemployment seems set to soar.

Tough times for many folk ahead

[spidermike007]

Duh! We thought it was going to be better! Really? How many have been out of work, and for how long? And that is not even factoring in tourism, or the total lack of it. 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand's manufacturing production index (MPI) in May dropped 23.19% from a year earlier

Coupled to the zero tourism it's going to be a bleak time for the PM.

But I'm sure the spin doctors have a plan ready to hatch !

[RichardColeman]

I'd say it's worse than that - or about to be worse, since a lot of those orders will either not be paid for due to the end user having cash problems themselves or Thailand is making product for companies already gone bust and is not sat on the dock with nowhere to go.

[dbrenn]

There have been dire prophesies of Thailand's impending doom for the past 30 years, but the place nevertheless goes from strength to strength. 

[Isaan sailor]

Not surprised in the least.  Look how high the Baht is now!

[Blumpie]

6 hours ago, billd766 said:

Yet still the Thai baht stays high.

 

I,for one, have no idea why.

Stop reading the conspiracy threads here for starters and you will find out why.  

[Blumpie]

Oh yes the world economy is doing bad, but it's not a total disaster.  It's going to go up but not for a while.  

This is affecting every industry, except for health care.  

[Caldera]

6 hours ago, dbrenn said:

There have been dire prophesies of Thailand's impending doom for the past 30 years, but the place nevertheless goes from strength to strength. 

I'd say the truth has been somewhere in between those extremes. Now with the coronavirus, all bets are off, and that's obviously not limited to Thailand.

 

[daveAustin]

8 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Coupled to the zero tourism it's going to be a bleak time for the PM.

The 'PM' couldn't give a monkeys.

 

7 hours ago, dbrenn said:

There have been dire prophesies of Thailand's impending doom for the past 30 years, but the place nevertheless goes from strength to strength. 

That is then, this is now. A drop off of 23% is not strength to strength. That's just for starters.

[geriatrickid]

13 hours ago, billd766 said:

Yet still the Thai baht stays high.

 

I,for one, have no idea why.

Very simple. Thailand has a trade surplus.

Merchandise imports decreased at a greater rate than the exports  which resulted  in a trade balance surplus in May of USD 2.7 billion. On a 12-month rolling basis, the trade surplus rose to USD 17.5 billion from USD 15.1 billion in the previous month. 

Thailand's debt is viable and supported.

[dbrenn]

1 hour ago, daveAustin said:

The 'PM' couldn't give a monkeys.

 

That is then, this is now. A drop off of 23% is not strength to strength. That's just for starters.

The Asian Financial Crisis back in the late 90's saw Thailand's GDP contract around 25% and the value of the Baht almost halve.

 

It soon bounced back. Thailand's export focussed economy is stronger than all the prophets of doom think. 

[Trillian]

4 hours ago, daveAustin said:

The 'PM' couldn't give a monkeys.

 

That is then, this is now. A drop off of 23% is not strength to strength. That's just for starters.

May is one month out of twelve, not an entire year.

[mikebell]

Meanwhile Vietnam's economy is still on the rise.  Maybe a communist Government might work here?

[Swimfan]

19 hours ago, dbrenn said:

There have been dire prophesies of Thailand's impending doom for the past 30 years, but the place nevertheless goes from strength to strength. 

So a country that cant afford to feed the people is going from strength to strength ?

[Trillian]

1 hour ago, Swimfan said:

So a country that cant afford to feed the people is going from strength to strength ?

If you mean, a country that doesn't have a robust system of social security where anyone can go down to the labour office and sign on, get paid unemployment money, get food stamps, get their taxes paid, have their mortgage/rent paid by government, get free travel cards for transportation, etc etc etc.....yes!

Edited June 30, 2020 by Trillian

[BritManToo]

4 hours ago, Swimfan said:

So a country that cant afford to feed the people is going from strength to strength ?

Probably less homeless in Thailand than in the USA or UK.

[BritManToo]

11 hours ago, Trillian said:

May is one month out of twelve, not an entire year.

You think June and July will be better?

[Trillian]

32 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

You think June and July will be better?

Nope, but by the time we get to October, November and December and then we average the year the fall should be much much smaller, that's how averages work.

[dbrenn]

5 hours ago, Swimfan said:

So a country that cant afford to feed the people is going from strength to strength ?

On the feeding of people you're talking about most western countries, right? Food banks, abandoned elderly, vagrants and homeless everywhere.

 

Thailand seems to be doing much better than those places, with its generally socially cohesive culture where families back each other up.

 

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed.

 

A troll post has been removed. 

[humbug]

On 6/29/2020 at 7:05 PM, Blumpie said:

Stop reading the conspiracy threads here for starters and you will find out why.  

communist china lies, so does this land, under the creepy belt and road initiative, countries sign secret agreements to align themselves to Beijing, think of the when those agreements began, and the chinese, whoops thai 20 year national strategy, bank of thailand after Singapore, in Asia, are Hong kong replacements for laundering currency transactions and holding assets away, from the toilet paper chinese yuan currency, as china is not on the international

swift code, for the communists, it also is the same time period of recent baht strength and economy weakness

Edited July 1, 2020 by humbug