BANGKOK: Thailand’s current account surplus fell by close to $2bn last month from its March level, but was still held up by shrinking imports and increasing tourist arrivals.
Thailand’s current account registered a surplus for the nineteenth straight month in April, this time of $3.164bn, well above the $2bn consensus forecast from economists but down markedly from March’s reading of $4.95bn.
The Bank of Thailand attributed the figure’s relative buoyancy to continued contraction in merchandise imports, down 13.4 per cent in April, as well as growth in the tourism sector, as the bank estimated the number of tourists for the period grew 9.8 per cent year-on-year.
But exports – which accounted for nearly 70 per cent of gross domestic product in 2014, according to the World Bank – were also down 7.6 per cent year-on-year last month. Customs-based export data for April reported last week had pegged export contraction at 8 per cent year-on-year.
Data from the central bank also pointed to a fall-back in private consumption, which contracted 0.2 per cent in April, while the level of private investment stood unchanged from a year prior.
