Ministry sorry for wrong data on export
The Commerce Ministry yesterday apologised for releasing an erroneous report the day before that did not reflect the actual decline in exports seen in June.
In fact, export value in June dropped by 4.2 per cent year on year to US$19.77 billion (Bt625 billion), not 2.5 per cent to $20.12 billion as reported on Wednesday. In addition, export value actually contracted by 2 per cent to $112.26 billion in the first half of the year, but it was reported that the decline was just 1.66 per cent.
Ministry permanent secretary Yanyong Phuangrach said the mistakes were due to the use of the wrong exchange rate when calculating the figures.
"The ministry did not intend to distort the truth. It was the officials’ error not to double-check the exchange rate last month," he said, adding that he did not expect this to affect trust in the ministry.
The report was based on May’s exchange rate, which was quoted at Bt30.62 against the US dollar, while it should have used the June exchange rate of Bt31.18 to the dollar. The import figures were also incorrect in the Wednesday report.
The corrected report showed that imports in June rose by 2.6 per cent to $20.31 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $546.3 million last month. Imports in the first half rose by 10 per cent year on year to $122.6 billion. Thailand experienced a trade deficit of $10.34 billion in the first half. Calculation of the import figures was based on an exchange rate of Bt31.56 to the dollar.
