BANGKOK: Thai exports contracted for the fourth consecutive month in July, by 4.4% year-on-year, bringing down shipment growth in the first seven months of the year to minus 2%, according to Commerce Ministry. Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee said exports totalled UScopy7.41 billion during the month while imports also fell 7.2% to copy6.2 billion year-on-year, representing a trade surplus of copy.2 billion.
Excluding commodities including oil and gold, exports dropped 6% year-on-year in July, while the figure over seven months fell by 2.7% from the same period of 2015. He said the major factors for the July decline were slumping shipments of refined oil (-40.7%) and automobiles (-27.5%), which brought down industrial exports by 0.4%.
Farm exports also tumbled by 18.6% in July, led by rubber (-34.8%), tapioca (-28.4%) and sugar (-33.8%). In any case, the ministry believes exports would improve over the next three to six months as confidence picked up after the smooth charter referendum on Aug 7. Mr Suvit said the Thai exports might also be bolstered by improving commodity prices and global economic circumstances. The ministry foresaw an additional $95-billion shipments over the remaining five months of the year, bringing 2016 growth to 1.3% from 2015.
