Thailand’s growth revised downward due to lack of tourist dollars
While stimulus measures have been launched to prop up the economy and the export market is expected to rebound this year, the massive drop in foreign tourists has had the biggest impact on the economy, acting director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) Kulaya Tantitemit said.
The FPO has revised down its forecast of Thailand’s growth to 2.8 per cent from its previous projection of 4.5 per cent. This is in line with a new prediction that tourist arrivals will fall from 8 million to 5 million with total tourist revenue down from Bt330 billion to Bt260 billion.
Thailand’s tourism sector has been hit hard by the Covid-19 fallout.
The agency has revised upward the forecast of export growth this year to 6.2 per cent from 6 per cent in line with expected economic expansion of Thailand’s trading partners.
Meanwhile, the Association of Domestic Travel (ADT) estimates the fresh Covid-19 outbreak has hit at least 2 million of the 4.4 million workers in the tourism sector.
ADT secretary-general Adith Chairattananon urged the government to launch bold new measures to mitigate the impact, including a scheme to co-pay workers’ wages for two to four months and a fund to help the sector.
