BANGKOK: Thai exports, which have contracted for years, will grow again in 2016, two business associations predicted.
Exports, equal to more than 60 percent of the economy, have stayed weak due to sluggish global demand and structural problems at home.
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The Commerce Ministry and the central bank both project that exports, which shrank in 2013 and 2014, contracted by 5.5 percent last year.
Isara Vongkusolkit, chairman for Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking, predicted that exports will increase 2 percent this year.
“But it won’t be easy because China’s market, which is a big market, is still holding back our exports,” he said.
Thai Commerce Ministry data shows exports to China fell 4.97 percent in January-November 2015, compared to a year earlier.
Also on Tuesday, the National Shippers’ Council said exports can increase 2 percent this year, helped by higher shipments for autos, auto parts and electronics items.
“We can still survive due to the weakening baht, but it doesn’t mean we can compete because we are still struggling,” Kongrit Chantrik, the council’s executive director, said.
Thailand is a regional production hub for the world’s top automakers.
Council chairman Nopporn Thepsitthar said the auto sector “will need to export more due to poor domestic demand”.
