Thailand’s Jan exports drop 26.5%
Thailand’s exports in January fell 26.5 percent from the same period last year to about US$10.50 billion after the country saw its exports dropped 20.5 and 14.6 percent in last November and December.
Last year, the country’s November exports sharply dropped as much as 22.24 percent from US$15.27 billion in October to US$11.87 billion before the value of exports in December slightly declined to US$11.60 billion.
Siripol Yodmuangcharoen, the country’s permanent secretary for commerce, today said the drop of 26.5 percent in January from the corresponding period of last year was the lowest since the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
However, he said, the country still enjoyed a trade surplus of almost US$1.38 billion in January as the value of imports also dropped 37.6 percent from the same period last year to only US$9.12 billion.
He said the export value of major agricultural products last month fell 25.6 percent while that of key industrial goods dropped 24.5 percent and others slid 34.6 percent, mainly due to weaker global demand and stronger competition.
Frozen and processed chicken was the only agricultural product which had higher value, up 13.6 percent, than that of January last year but their volume declined 6.0 percent.
The volume of gems and jewelry and that of pharmaceutical and medical products are the only categories of industrial products which were exported 37.4 and 7.0 percent more than those of January 2008.
In term of key markets, the exports to ASEAN countries in January dropped 34.8 percent while those to European Union, the United States and Japan fell 28.4, 27.7 and 18.8 percent respectively.
Siripol said Thailand’s exports during the first half of this year would not be bright due to the prevailing world economic meltdown but the situation should improve as world economy is expected to rebound in the second half.
Thailand’s export growth target for this year has been set to fall between 0-3 percent.
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