October growth at two-year low of 0.3% amid natural disaster, Western woes
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Thai exports in October grew only 0.3 per cent year on year to US$17.79 billion (Bt554.5 billion), the smallest expansion in two years, as industries were seriously hit by the flood crisis, the Commerce Ministry reported yesterday.
Give the impact of the flood disaster, the ministry has been forced to lower its official export-growth target for this year to 15 per cent, just a couple of months after revising it upwards to 20 per cent in September.
Deputy Commerce Minister Siriwat Kachornprasart said shipments in the current fourth quarter of the year were expected to drop by 15 per cent. Besides hitting export industries directly, the floods have disrupted transport.
Last month, agricultural exports continued to grow by 35.8 per cent, but those by industrial sectors dropped by 11.8 per cent.
Major export products that saw seriously drops last month included lenses by 37.8 per cent, jewellery and ornaments by 36.2 per cent, toys by 34.5 per cent, electronics by 22.1 per cent, automobiles and parts by 15.3 per cent, electronic appliances by 14.5 per cent, and furniture and parts by 14.1 per cent.
Total shipments in the first 10 months were up by 22.8 per cent to $196.76 billion. Imports in October increased by 21.5 per cent to $18.2 billion. Total imports in the first 10 months rose 29.1 per cent to $192.49 billion.
Thailand was locked in a trade deficit of $1 billion last month, but still has a trade surplus of $4.27 billion for the first 10 months of the year.
The impacts of the United States’ and the European Union’s financial crunches also caused lower exports from Thailand last month. Export to the US was down by 5.5 per cent, to the EU by 11.1 per cent, to Hong Kong by 15.1 per cent, and to Taiwan by 14.2 per cent.
Nuntawan Sakuntanaga, director-general of the Export Promotion Department, said that as many industries, including seven industrial estates and small and medium-sized enterprises, had been seriously hit by floods for several months, exports would continue to drop until the first quarter next year.
She said that because of the debt crises in the US and the EU, consumers in those markets have lower purchasing power and weak confidence to spend their money.
Exports of many major products to the US were down significantly last month, including electrical appliances by 30 per cent, garments by 26 per cent, and electronics by 12.8 per cent.
