THE Thai National Shippers' Council (TNSC) has raised its forecast for export growth to 8 per cent for this year, scrubbing out an earlier estimate for 6 per cent expansion after the value of shipments hit a record high in March.

A SURGE in exports helped push economic growth to 3.3 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, but a contraction in private investment took some of the gloss off an otherwise encouraging performance that also benefited form increased public spending and consumption.