Posts Tagged ‘recovery’

Thai economy recovers well after financial crisis

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Thailand is in a good position to attract rebounding global foreign direct investments, thanks to the country’s strong economic recovery, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says.

Mr Abhisit on Thursday told the launch of the World Investment Report 2010 prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) that Thailand is among Asian countries whose economies have recovered significantly from the global financial crisis.

“Global investments have shown clear signs of a rebound. Thailand and Asia have been perceived as the main locations for world investments and have played major roles in driving the global economic recovery,” he said.

Figures from the Board of Investment (BoI) indicate that foreign direct investments (FDI) into Thailand rebounded from late 2009 and continued to grow in the first half of this year.

FDI has arrived from major investors such as Japan and from other countries which want to step up their presence here, Mr Abhisit said.

The tourism sector, which was hard hit by the recent political turmoil, has remained an area attracting foreign investments.

But investments over the past month are not only in sectors in which Thailand is a major player. They also are in industries which have the potential to grow, he said.

Political stability to push GDP to 5.2%

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

The Thai economy is recovering and if the political situation is stable and the financial crisis in Europe over, gross domestic product (GDP) could expand by 5.2 per cent this year, Thanawat Polwichai, director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday.

Mr Thanawat said a survey of economic expansion in the first quarter of the year confirmed that the economy has rebounded in all regions due to global economic recovery that helped boost the country’s exports.

The survey found that first quarter GDP growth is projected at 9.2 per cent in the Northeast, 8.6 per cent in the North, 9.1 per cent in the South, 16 per cent in Central, and 11.1 per cent in Bangkok and its vicinity. These would make the country’s GDP expand by 12 per cent in the first quarter.

He projected that economic recovery in the region would help boost Thai economic growth to as high as 5.2 per cent at year-end — on the condition that politics is rapidly stabilised, the world economy has recovered as expected and there is no further financial crisis in Europe.

If there is no political stability, the world economy expands slower than expectations and the European financial problem continues, Thai GDP growth could be as low as 3.5 per cent, the director said.

The centre maintained its GDP growth forecast at 4.5-5.2 per cent for 2010.

The Bangkok Post