KBank:Thai economy is recovering

BANGKOK, July 9 (TNA) - KASIKORNBANK (KBank) says that the Thai economy is recovering in the second half of 2014, with the country's gross domestic product (GDP) projected to grow by 2.3 per cent year-on-year on average this year. KBank Executive Vice President Vasin Vanichvoranun told journalists on Wednesday that the Thai economy appears to pick up significantly in the second half of this year, boosted by disbursements of state budgets for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years, promotional privileges to be approved by the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) in the near future for new investment projects, worth about 700 billion baht, and 92-billion-baht payment for local farmers' pledged rice. Vasin elaborated that the factors should allow Thailand's GDP to grow by 4.3 per cent year-on-year in the second half of this year, raising the country's GDP growth rate for the whole 2014 from 1.8 per cent year-on-year to 2.3 per cent year-on-year, while other factors to support the national economic growth include people's consumption and exports. Vasin assessed that state spending should be directly beneficial to the Thai construction and property sectors, while household spending, spurred by pledged rice payment to farmers, should boost the growth of local retail and consumer product businesses. The KBank executive vice president also projected that the value of Thai exports should grow by 3 per cent year-on-year this year, compared with its 0.2 per cent shrink last year. According to the KBank executive vice president, the Thai automobile industry and new investment projects waiting for promotional privileges from the BOI, worth about 400 billion baht, could significantly boost the Thai economy in the second half of this year.(TNA)