The Thai economy would expand well in 2011

BANGKOK, 19 January 2011 (NNT) – The Thai economy would expand well in 2011 due to the continuous export growth in tandem with the stronger global economy, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).

BoT’s Macroeconomic Policy and Analysis Office Director Songtum Pinto reported that the country’s economic expansion in the fourth quarter of 2010 was higher than expected, particularly in November 2010, despite flooding which affected the economy only to a certain extent.

Regarding risk factors in this year, Mr Songtum expressed his opinion that the climbing up of fuel prices, commodity product prices and agricultural product prices remained critical and might hinder the positive economic movement.

The economist hence urged the Ministry of Commerce to take care of price adjustments by entrepreneurs to ensure fairness while the BoT would focus on overall inflation situation within the kingdom.

Mr Songtum continued that a higher-than-reality inflation estimate made by the public would effectively cause price changes of many products and would eventually lead to a higher inflation rate. Therefore, he said it was necessary to restore their confidence that inflation was controllable.