Sept export improvement signals better full-year figure
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BOTH exports and imports last month swung back to the highest figures in two years, fuelling hopes that outbound shipments for the whole year would not shrink as dramatically as previously expected.
Pimchanok Wornkorporn, deputy director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Policies and Trade Strategies Bureau, said Wednesday that export value this year should be between US$212.2 billion and $214.3 billion. That would be a contraction of zero to 1 per cent, less severe than other predictions of a 2-per-cent shrinkage.
The ministry reported that exports in September grew for the second straight month by 3.43 per cent to $19.46 billion (Bt668.93 billion) in value, while imports surged by 5.57 per cent, increasing for the first time in four months, to $16.91 billion in total value.
The country locked in a trade surplus of $2.54 billion last month.
