Shippers' Council lowers export growth to 5.5%

Vallop Vitanakorn, a vice chairman of the TNSC, yesterday said the Bank of Thailand had already lowered this year’s export-growth target from 9 per cent to 7.2 per cent, having seen signs of a slowdown in overseas shipments.
The central bank had taken several factors into account in adjusting the figure downwards, including the economic slowdown in many of the Kingdom’s trading partners.
Exporters have given their own ideas to the council about the main reasons for lower-than-expected export growth this year.
These are: the economic slowdown of trading partners; the increase in Thai labour costs; and the strengthening of the baht, which is in contrast with currency movements in neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia.
Vallop said the TNSC had previously set its export target at 6.9 per cent, which was below those set by both the central bank and the Commerce Ministry.
However, it has now revisited its target after receiving complete information about the country’s exports during the first quarter of the year, when the value of overseas shipments slowed because of the appreciation of the baht.
The TNSC now expects exports to expand by just 5.5 per cent, as exporters’ price competitiveness has been reduced, he said.
Although the Bank of Thailand recognises that the export slowdown will negatively impact the economy, the country will benefit from domestic investment, especially the Bt350-billion water-management project and Bt2-trillion infrastructure development programme, which is projected by the government to raise employment and consumption dramatically by the end of this year, he added.
Sukij Kongpiyajarn, president of the Thai Garment Manufacturing Association, said the economies of many of the Kingdom’s major trading partners – the US, the European Union and Japan in particular – had yet to recover.
Moreover, the depreciation of the yen has made Thai exports to Japan more difficult, which is another reason the garments industry will find it tough to achieve higher overall exports than last year, he said.
Pornsil Patcharintanakul, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the exchange rate was the key factor affecting Thai exports, rather than the economic slowdown of the country’s trading partners.