Thai economy will grow 4 percent this year: Thaksin

Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he believes the Thai economy will grow around 4 percent this year, but concedes that the country's economy has begun to have a worrying sign of weakness, the Thai News Agency reported Friday.

Delivering a speech on Thursday at a meeting of senior officials of state agencies on a way to perform duties by the caretaker government, he said the Thai economy looks good in some sectors, but sounds worrying in other ones.

"I feel unhappy with the situation because if the economy plunges into crisis again, we need to make a double effort to make it recover," said Thaksin.

In the first four months of this year, he noted, the country has experienced a trade deficit of 520 million U.S dollars.

But fortunately, the local tourism has recovered, which made the country enjoy a current account surplus of 1.37 billion U.S. dollars in the January-April period.

The country's international reserve remains high. However, a sign of economic weakness has begun to emerge as it could be witnessed by a reduction in the utilization of machinery in industrial production, a setback in the construction sector, lower- than-targeted tax collection and declined consumption of people.

He said the state spending remains slow, therefore it is necessary for a budget disbursement acceleration.

He admitted that fuel prices would continue to stay high without any sign of decline.

The local interest rate hike looks worrying like that in the past if it continues to gain momentum.

Foreign capital has gradually flown out particularly from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) because investors lacked confidence in Thailand, he said.

Even so, the premier said he remains confident that the Thai economy would expand 4 percent for the whole year.

Source: Xinhua People's Daily - 30 June 2006

The country's international reserve remains high. However, a sign of economic weakness has begun to emerge as it could be witnessed by a reduction in the utilization of machinery in industrial production, a setback in the construction sector, lower- than-targeted tax collection and declined consumption of people.

29 june, Thaksin, "caretaker" prime minister

The country’s economy grew at a slower pace with high living costs in May, but local consumption remained higher as could be witnessed by an increase in the value-added tax collection, according to the Finance Ministry.

The consumption-based tax incomes increased significantly at 18.2% from 7.3% in the previous month because people were still confident of the consumption despite the economic slowdown.

30 june, Somchai Sajjapong, the ministry’s spokesman

Now you may start to understand that :

-usually economic "datas and figures" can be streched, modified, etc. They are, along with their interpretations, not to be trusted.

-so there is no reason thah Thailand should do better. On the contrary, this "cut and paste" proves it, it's legitimate to believe that thai governement is doing worse.

-therefore : foreign investors should remain highly cautious about the economic future of Thailand.