SCB:Thai exports are likely to grow by 8% in 2014

BANGKOK, October 31 (TNA) - Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand's oldest commercial bank, has predicted that the Thai economy should grow by 8 per cent year-on-year in 2014, which should also boost the national economy next year to expand by 4.5 per cent year-on-year. Sutapa Amornvivat, chief economist at SCB’s Economic Intelligence Center, elaborated on Thursday that the projected Thai export and economic growth next year was based on an assessment that the country's exports of automobiles and parts, as well as electrical appliances should expand by 10 per cent year-on-year. Sutapa pointed out that the Thai government’s new investment in mega-infrastructure development projects should also start to spur the national economic growth next year. Sutapa acknowledged, however, that the Thai economy should expand by only 3.4 per cent this year, revised downward from SCB's earlier projection of 4 per cent, due to weak export growth by only 0.1 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of this year and by only 1.5 per cent year-on-year on average this year. Regarding protests against an amnesty bill, the SCB chief economist foresaw that they should not affect the national economic growth but they should have some impacts on the confidence of foreign investors and on Thailand's target to become an attractive investment destination in Asia. Meanwhile, former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban of Thailand's main opposition Democrat Party reported themselves to the Attorney General to acknowledge charges against them, as scheduled, concerning crackdowns on political demonstrations in 2010. Both Abhisit and Suthep were charged by the Attorney General with committing or ordering others to commit murder and attempted murder. Abhisit proposed that there should be a process to find facts in which he is ready to undergo. The former Thai premier and the Democrat Party's leader also vowed to do his best to oppose the amnesty bill, while a group of doctors who also oppose the amnesty bill confirmed that doctors, nurses and pharmacists would rally in front of Bangkok's Ramathibodi Hospital on Thursday evening and then march to nearby Uruphong Intersection to protest against the bill. (TNA)