"The Thai economy in March and the 1 st quarter of 2019 showed some decreasing sign particularly from external demand due to the slowdown of export values caused by the world economy and the number of foreign tourist arrivals. Meanwhile, domestic demand, particularly private consumption, continually rose although there was a decreasing sign in the private investment, especially in the equipment and machinery sector as indicated by the import volume of capital goods. In addition, the internal economic stability and external economic stability remained favorable and robust."
Mr.Lavaron Sangsnit, the Executives of Fiscal Policy Office as Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, and Mr. Pisit Puapan, Executive Director of Macroeconomic Policy Bureau as Deputy Spokesperson of the Fiscal Policy Office revealed the economic report in March and the 1st quarter of 2019 that "The Thai economy in March and the 1st quarter of 2019 showed some decreasing sign particularly from external demand due to the slowdown of export values caused by the world economy and the number of foreign tourist arrivals. Meanwhile, domestic demand, particularly private consumption, continually rose although there was a decreasing sign in the private investment, especially in the equipment and machinery sector as indicated by the import volume of capital goods. In addition, the internal economic stability and external economic stability remained favorable and robust."
Economic indicators on private consumption expenditures recovered and expanded in March 2019 as shown by VAT collection has recovered and showed positive expansion. Moreover, private consumption in durable goods reflected from passenger car sales and registration of new motorcycles expanded continually by 15.2 and 2.3 percent per year respectively. However, private consumption expenditures decelerated in the first quarter of 2019.
Economic indicators on private investment in March and the 1 st quarter of 2019 showed decreasing sign in the equipment and machinery sector reflected from commercial car sales increased with a decelerating by 4.6 percent per year. Whereas, private investment in the construction sector as reflected by cement sales and real estate tax collection were declined except the construction material price index has recovered and showed positive expansion. Therefore, economic indicators on private investment in March and the 1 st quarter of 2019 in overall slightly decreased.
For the fiscal sector, total government expenditure in March 2019 was amounted at 225.1 billion baht and annual budgetary expenditure was disbursed at 200.7 billion baht as a result of current expenditure which was disbursed at 159.9 billion baht, capital expenditure which was disbursed at 40.8 billion baht, and carry-over budget which was disbursed at 24.5 billion baht .
External demand as reflected by export values in March 2019 was 21.4 billion USD showed negative expansion by -4.9 percent per year due to the slowdown of the world economy and demand of the trading partner's economy. Meanwhile, import values were 19.4 billion USD decreased by -7.6 percent per year. As a result, the trade balance in March 2019 showed a surplus of 2.0 billion USD. Furthermore, the export value in the 1 st quarter of 2019 was 2.0 billion USD decreased by -1.6 percent per year.
Supply-side indicators in March 2019 showed the decreasing sign in agricultural sector reflected from the agricultural production index decreased by -1.9 percent per year. While the number of foreign tourists decreased slightly from the slowdown of the number of Chinese tourist arrivals. However, the number of tourist arrivals from India, Malasia, and Japan expanded. Apart from that, the industries sectors as reflected from the manufacturing production index (MPI) fell in March and the 1 st quarter of 2019 at 115.7 level (decreased by -2.5 percent per year) and 109.88 level (decreased by -1.1 percent per year), respectively. However, the Thai Industries Sentiment Index (TISI) in March 2019 rose to 96.3 level.
Internal economic stability remained favourable and external economic stability remained robust.
Source: Ministry of Finance