BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s economy may have shrank by 12%-13% in the second quarter from a year earlier due to the impacts of the coronavirous pandemic, the central bank said on Friday, in what could be a record contraction.
However, the economy had improved in June from the previous month following the easing of a lockdown to curb the spread, which has battered tourism and domestic activity.
“The economy should have bottomed out. The second quarter probably shrank the deepest in history,” Don Nakornthab, a director at the Bank of Thailand (BOT), told a briefing.
“At this point, we still look at a double-digit contraction, possibly minus 12%-13%,” he said.
Thailand registered a record economic contraction of 12.5% in the second quarter of 1998, during the Asian financial crisis.
Don said official gross domestic product (GDP) data for April-June, which is due on Aug. 17, might be better than the BOT’s estimates given the latest improved economic indicators.
“If the actual data is better than expected, there is a chance that the BOT will revise up its estimates when it reviews them in September,” he said.
The BOT has forecast Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy will contract by a record 8.1% this year.
In June, private consumption rose 6% from the previous month while investment increased 5.7%.
Exports, a key driver of growth, dropped 24.6% in June from a year earlier, after May’s 23.6% decline.
(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Ed Davies and Martin Petty)
