BANGKOK: Thailand’s private consumption inched up while investment contracted in March from the previous month, central bank indexes showed on Friday, suggesting the economic recovery remained patchy.
The Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) private consumption index for March was up 0.1 percent from the previous month, during which it rose 1.4 percent. March’s index for private investment declined 1.2 percent from February, when it fell 0.1 percent.
The BOT said there was a current account surplus of $2.58 billion in March after a $5.74 billion surplus in February. Exports, based on financial settlements, jumped 10.8 percent in March from a year earlier after February’s 0.7 percent rise, the central bank said. A recovery in exports, a traditional key growth driver, is a boost to Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, whose growth has lagged regional peers in recent years.
The economy is expected to grow 3 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, central bank senior director Don Nakornthab told a news conference. The central bank has forecast economic growth of 3.4 percent this year, with export increasing 2.2 percent.