Export growth declines in November

[Lite Beer]

Export growth declines in November

BANGKOK: -- International Trade Department says Thailand’s export growth dropped in November after exports of farm and industrial products were below targets and global economy remains weak.

Ms Nantawan Sakuntanaga, director-general of the Department of International Trade, said the export growth in November contracted 0.1 percent over the same period of last year to stand at US$18.6 billion.

The decline in growth was due to a weaker-than-expected growth of export in agricultural and industrial products, which contracted by 8.5 percent over the same period of last year, she said.

Weak recovery of the global economy is also blamed for the poor export performance.

Ms Nantawan said exports to Thailand’s main trade partners during the month dropped by 4.3 percent year on year.

For the first eleven month of this year, Thailand’s exports amounted to 209.18 billion US dollar, a drop of 0.42 percent year on year.

The International Trade Department remains optimistic that Thailand’s export growth will not contract this year. It says if exports in December reach US$19.3 billion as targeted, Thailand will not face a negative export growth this year.

The department also keeps its export target for 2015 unchanged at 4 percent.
She said she has ordered commerce attachés at all Thai embassies to closely monitor the global oil prices and to gather information for use in development of export promotion measures next year.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/export-growth-declines-november

-- Thai PBS 2014-12-27

[rickirs]

"She said she has ordered commerce attachés at all Thai embassies to closely monitor the global oil prices and to gather information for use in development of export promotion measures next year."

I hope she follows up with more detailed orders as this order is nonsense.

How many GLOBAL oil prices are there? The most commonly cited global prices are the OPEC Basket Oil Price, Brent Crude Oil, and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. Those prices are posted daily trhough many free internet sources. There are currently 69 Thai embassies and she wants every embassy to monitor three of the same global oil prices? Surely she has a staff person who can do the monitoring.

And how does the global price of oil relate to Thailand "export promotion measures?" Thailand is a net importer of oil (US Energy Information Administration). If the Thai economy goes into a recession then maybe it can become a net oil exporter but that is not an ideal "promotion" plan!