Tourism thrives amid economic deceleration in June
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The Thai economy continued to moderate in June, when weaker export demand especially from China pressured the export sector and private investment. Still, the tourism industry continued to expand robustly while private consumption stabilised, according to
In the month, Thailand welcomed 2.1 million foreign tourist arrivals or a
growth of 25 per cent from the same period last year, thanks to more tourists from China, Malaysia, India, and Russia, the central bank said in the monthly economic report.
The monthly export was pressured by weak global demand, coupled with supply constraints due to the shrimp disease. The maintenance shutdown of petroleum refineries also weighed on exports temporarily, resulting in a 3.5 per cent drop in the monthly export value to US$18.8 billion. Slowdown was seen for many items from agricultural products, fishery, to manufacturing products – especially
hard disk drives (HDD), petroleum products, electrical appliances, and processed agricultural products.
The monthly import value also expanded by only 0.9 per cent to $18.23 billion. Excluding fuel and gold, the value stood at $12.4 billion, a drop by 5.1 per cent.
This led to a 3.5 per cent drop in the manufacturing production index and the 4.1 per cent decline in the private investment index.
In the month, the private consumption index showed a sign of stabilisation, rising by 0.8 per cent as non-durable purchases increased with fuel consumption and imports of consumer goods, especially food and beverages. Durable consumption declined mainly from car purchases, as fewer cars remained to be delivered under the first-car scheme and new car orders also dropped.
