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Thai exports may shrink by 15% this year - shippers


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Thai exports may shrink by 15% this year - shippers

 

2020-08-04T073546Z_1_LYNXNPEG730G9_RTROPTP_4_THAILAND-ECONOMY-EXPORTS.JPG

FILE PHOTO: A worker stands next to shipping containers on a ship at a port in Bangkok, Thailand, March 25, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's exports may contract by 15% this year as the coronavirus pandemic hits global demand and a stubbornly strong baht <THB=TH> adds to pressure, a Thai shipping association said on Tuesday.

 

Exports, a key driver of Thai growth, slumped 15.2% in the second quarter from a year earlier and 7.1% in the January-June period.

 

The export picture in the third quarter will be similar to the second period as the global economy has yet to recover, Ghanyapad Tantipipatpong, chairwoman of the Thai National Shippers' Council, told reporters.

 

While the group keeps its 2020 export target of minus 10% for now, Ghanyapad said there were more negative factors than positive ones and it was therefore possible that shipments could fall by 15%.

 

That would be the sharpest decline since the commerce ministry started compiling records on exports in 1992 and compares with a 14.3% drop in 2009, during the global financial crisis.

 

The baht was at 31.05 per dollar at 0710 GMT, a month high. The current level is much stronger than the 33-34 per dollar level needed to help exports, Ghanyapad said.

 

"We want to shout to the central bank to help take care of it," she said. "The Thai economy is not better than the global economy but why the baht keeps strengthening?".

 

The central bank previously said the strength of baht could hurt the recovery of Southeast Asia's second-largest economy which it predicts will contract by a record 8.1% this year.

 

(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Martin Petty)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-04
 
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Central bankers and the Generals need to get out of their air conditioned headquarters, and pay a visit to the shipping docks and then visit the remaining exporters—to begin to understand the dire straits they find themselves in.  Their economy continues to sink, while the band plays on.

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14 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

From my offices in Laem Chabang it is business as usual. No great impact on the operations here yet. At least, none that is immediately apparent.

luckily same for the company my son runs there ,but next door closed down ,40 or so out of work .

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I have shipped nothing to the USA or Europe since late March and there are hundreds more like me. So, obviously , none of us are buying stock here to ship out. A loss to the economy. 

 

Until Thailand post resumes ordinary service a lot of people less fortunate than myself might end up going to the wall. My supplier has so few orders he has had to lay off all his staff and is dealing with the trickle of orders he has remaining himself.

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Without a doubt economies earth wide are going to suffer horrendously.  And nobody is going to suffer more than tourism based economies.  For Thailand, it's a one-two punch.  

 

When it does come back it will be huge, but what are we looking at time wise?  If we get a vaccine by the end of this year maybe a year after that or two!  There won't be four billion doses sitting around for widespread use.  

 

Afraid to say it, we're in for it.  Gold is rising like mad - it's 2k per ounce and futures are higher.  

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