BANGKOK: Thailand’s customs-cleared exports rose in December, which ended a three-year streak in which shipments declined, an encouraging sign for the trade-reliant economy which has struggled to grow in the face of tepid demand abroad and at home.
Exports rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, a second straight month of annual gains after a 10.2% jump in November, commerce ministry data showed on Tuesday.
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Higher oil prices, which lifted the prices of other commodities, helped boost December exports. The median forecast of nine economists was for December exports to expand 8.20% from a year earlier.
The December gain meant that total 2016 Thai shipments increased 0.45%, ending three straight years of export contraction. Thai exports this year are expected to rise 2.5% to 3.5% due to improved oil and commodity prices, Pimchanok Vonkhorporn, the ministry’s head of trade policy and strategy office, told reporters.
Last month, the ministry predicted 2017 exports would grow 2.5%-3.0%. Imports in December increased 10.3% from a year earlier. Economists had expected a rise of 5.55% after November’s 3.0% increase.
That produced a trade surplus of US$0.94 billion in December, compared with November’s US$1.54 billion. For all of 2016, the trade surplus was a record high US$20.7 billion. Many materials that Thailand imports are assembled into completed goods and shipped out again.
Thai exports, worth about two-thirds of the country’s GDP, have been long weak due to sluggish global demand and structural problems at home.
