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408281
Tue, 05/31/2016 - 12:55
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Thai property sector likely to grow 5% in 2016

BANGKOK, May 31 (TNA) - The Ministry of Finance projects that Thailand's real estate sector should grow by 5 per cent in 2016, as the government is developing housing projects to serve retirees. While speaking at a seminar on the government's policy and the direction of the Thai property sector, held in Bangkok on Tuesday, Deputy Finance Minister Wisudhi Srisuphan voiced the projection, saying that he has ordered the Government Housing Bank (GHB) to discuss with private housing developers and compile information on home transfers because buying of used houses in the country is only 1.3 per cent a year. Wisudhi noted that the government will use the gathered information to consider whether a law on house brokers should be amended. Besides, the Thai government is proceeding with a plan on developing housing projects for retirees in the country, under which the elderly could purchase and live in their new houses on the installment basis, with the details expected to be concluded soon. Thai Condominium Association President Prasert Taedullayasatit then told the seminar that 10 major private housing developers plan to launch 92 housing projects with 200,000 units in Bangkok and outlying provinces, which should boost the Thai property sector to grow by 5 per cent this year, after sales of housing projects were earlier taken place in six other provinces, including Chiang Mai in the Thai North, Chon Buri and Rayong in the Thai East, as well as Phuket and Songkhla in the Thai South, spurring the Thai property sector's growth by 11 per cent year-on-year during the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the ministry's Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) reported that there should be investment funds of up to 2 trillion baht injected into the Thai economy by both the public and the private sectors in the second, third and last quarters of this year, gradually stimulating the domestic consumption and the national economy, while the domestic tourism should earn the Kingdom about 1.7 trillion baht during the rest of the year, accounting for some 12 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), with up to anticipated 33.9 million international visitors to the country. Thai National Shippers Council (TNSC) President Nopporn Thepsitha told journalists, in the meantime, that the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised downward its projection of the global economic growth this year to 3.2, from 3.4 per cent earler, while TNSC has maintained its projection of Thailand's export growth at 0–2 per cent in 2016. (TNA)

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