At first sight this looks truly horrid, especially from an emerging economy, I mean aren't they just supposed to slow down a little, rather than underperform the heavyweights like Germany, USA, Japan, UK, and France?

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/14...q1-gdp-down-5-6

BoT says Q1 GDP down 5-6%

By: Bangkokpost.com Published: 30/04/2009 at 08:52 PM The economy in the first quarter was estimated to have contracted by 5-6% from the same period last year as a result of a decline in exports and the domestic economy in March, according to the Bank of Thailand's latest economic assessment.

Amara Sriphayak, senior director for the Domestic Economy Department, said exports in March grew in certain markets including the Middle East, Australia and China, particularly for hard disk drives.

Overall shipments decreased 23% to $11.4 billion in March from the same period last year, and imports shrank 35% to $9.2 billion.

Manufacturing picked up slightly in March. On a quarterly basis, industrial output contracted 10% from the previous quarter and 20% from the same period last year.

Private consumption nudged up in March, but slid 5% on a quarterly basis. Private investment also slackened in March and shrank 13% on a quarterly basis.

Dr Amara said an improvement of export orders in March could derive from temporary inventory increases, as opposed to a sustainable recovery.

She said the central bank's business sentiment survey reflected poorer confidence in the economy and political stability in the future. Meanwhile, declining capital utilisation would delay the recovery of private investment for the future.

Dr Amara said tourist arrivals were down 15% on the quarter from the same period last year, a better-than-expected recovery from the political turmoil in the second half of last year. The number of visitors decreased 12% year-on-year in March while hotel occupancy rates averaged 52%.

That's what happens when you shut down your airports, riot in the streets and change governments every few weeks.

However ironically given this flu pandemic maybe less tourists isn't so bad.

Edited April 30, 200917 yr by wasabi