HindustanTimes.com

Monday, October 27, 2003

Thailand sets higher export target for this year

Associated Press
Bangkok, October 27

Thailand has increased its target for exports this year, projecting growth
of 12 per cent to $77 billion compared with the previous target of 10.58 per
cent, Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik said on Monday.

The new projection was announced along with statistics that showed
Thailand's exports in September surged 11.1 per cent over September 2002's
performance to $7.105 billion. Imports for the month rose 15.8 per cent year
on year to $6.35 billion, Adisai said.

His announcement was the latest in a series of new, higher projections made
for Thai economic performance this year, after the war in Iraq, threats of
terrorism and the SARS epidemic caused fewer problems than expected.

Earlier this month, the World Bank raised its forecast for Thailand's
economic growth to 5.8 per cent for 2003, describing the country's recent
performance as "strong and impressive."

It had previously projected that gross domestic product growth would slow to
4.5 per cent this year from 5.3 per cent last year. Its revised forecast
matched that of Thailand's central bank, and was slightly lower than that
made by the state planning agency.

Announcing this year's new export target of $77 billion, Adisai said high
export growth will help boost the country's gross domestic product growth to
at least 6.3 per cent.

For the first three quarters of this year, Thai exports amounted to $58.33
billion, up 15.6 per cent over the same period in 2002, while imports rose
13.8 per cent to $54.10 billion, Adisai said.

He noted that the result was a trade surplus of $4.23 billion, a significant
hike of 44.4 per cent for the January-September period. The trade surplus
for all of 2003 is projected to be $4.5 billion-5 billion, he added.

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