2013 Thai growth below 3%, consumer confidence lowest in 22 months

[webfact]

2013 Thai growth below 3%, consumer confidence lowest in 22 months
By English News

BANGKOK, Dec 3 – The Finance Ministry today further lowered Thailand’s 2013 economic growth projection to less than 3 per cent.

Somchai Sajjapong, Fiscal Police Office director, said the month-long demonstrations have disrupted disbursement of capital spending in Q4 to only 28 per cent while tourism has been impacted after 34 countries warned their people against visiting Thailand.

The lengthy demonstrations will affect investors’ confidence in the mid- and long terms and credit rating agencies will possibly lower Thailand’s credit given the political turmoil, he said.

He said the state’s planned investment of Bt2 trillion (about US$65 billion) for infrastructure development will be affected and next year’s economy could expand less than 5 per cent in light of hiccups in public and private investments.

Rangsan Srivorasart, permanent secretary for finance, said the monthly payroll for civil servants would not be affected but government workers found it inconvenient to carry out their routine tasks since the seizure of the Finance Ministry by anti-government protesters.

He said the connecting system for imports and exports, handled by the Finance Ministry, has been partially disrupted but officials will continue working.

The University of Thai Chamber of Commerce said Thailand’s consumer confidence index (CCI) in November plunged to its lowest from 76.6 in October to 75 in November – continuously declining for eight consecutive months.

The CCI in November was also the lowest in 22 months since February last year, he added.

He said the political conflicts will have a negative impact on Thailand’s 2014 economy at only 0.1-0.2 per cent and the Thai economy will expand at projected at 4.5-5 per cent.

However, the economic growth will drop by 0.5 per cent if the Bt2 trillion infrastructure development projects were not begun, he said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2013-12-03

[Prbkk]

Thanks, Mr Suthep....your contribution to this decline has been significant

[jackrich]

Really makes you wonder why confidence is so low. I think we need a 200 million Baht study conducted by Suthep's people power panel to find out why!

[rubl]

No surprise there. We could already see this coming with continuous lowering expectations over the year. To blame the month long protests seems a bit ridiculous. It looks like a case of a government more interested in one single Thai person rather than the whole nation.

[catmac]

No surprise there. We could already see this coming with continuous lowering expectations over the year. To blame the month long protests seems a bit ridiculous. It looks like a case of a government more interested in one single Thai person rather than the whole nation.

Or a case of one inflated, self-opinionated buffoon "more interested in one single Thai person rather than the whole nation".

[ozyjon]

I Have just arrived in my country (not Thailand) and have been watching the finance shows on tv,, surprisingly one panel has forecast that there will be a (significant) global bubble burst between now and five years,,, many western countries will suffer,, mainly based on China's economic slowdown,, many countries have been using China's forecast purchasing orders to base their economies on but China is at the end of it's ordering of resources from around the world so that will impact on global economic growth will slow down world wide,,, where will this leave Thailand i wonder (thinking about the rice stock piles) what if no one wants it or the price falls very low,, where will Thailand's economic growth come from i wonder?