The Business Times (20 October 2007)
(BANGKOK) Thai Finance Minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn said that the country's economy would pick up next year after the government increased spending, while foreign investment has recovered.
The expansion may 'easily' exceed 5 per cent in 2008, up from an estimated 4.5 per cent this year, he said in an interview on Saturday in Washington.
Growth 'certainly will pick up because of these investment projects, whether on the public-sector side or the foreign-investor side, that will be kicking in', Mr Chalongphob said.
Thailand, which has depended on exports since a September 2006 coup eroded domestic confidence and demand, has lifted public spending and lured back international investors to shore up growth. Mr Chalongphob anticipates that that would help compensate for a global slowdown.
'Over time, maybe the pace of export growth may slow down a little bit, particularly with the problems in the sub-prime market, which may affect the US economy,' Mr Chalongphob said.
'So we already put in place the additional engines that will help to push the economy along if exports begin to decline, and this is through investment.'
Thailand's cabinet agreed on Oct 16 to spend 59 billion baht (S$2.7 billion) to build a railway line in Bangkok, the third mass-transit project approved by the government for the capital. Ford Motor Co and its Japanese affiliate Mazda Motor said on Oct 9 that they would spend more than US$500 million to set up a plant in Thailand. -- Bloomberg
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