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Thai PM: economy to slide further in 1st quarter
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Thai PM: economy to slide further in 1st quarter
AP - Monday, March 2
BANGKOK - Thailand's prime minister told his countrymen Sunday that they can expect the nation's economy to contract further in the first quarter of this year and return to positive growth only toward the end of the year.
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Abhisit Vejjajiva said in his weekly televised address that the economy's performance in the first quarter would be equal or worse than the fourth quarter of last year, when it contracted 4.3 percent.
The last time Thailand's economy shrank was in the first quarter of 1999. Thailand's economy, Southeast Asia's second largest after Indonesia, grew 2.6 percent overall in 2008.
The National Economic & Social Development Board, the main state planning agency, said last week that the economy may contract as much as 1 percent in 2009. It previously forecast growth of as much as 4 percent for the year.
Abhisit said his administration expects economic stimulus measures will bring growth by the fourth quarter, but the government will have to borrow from abroad to fund the measures, which include cash handouts to the poor and long-term infrastructure projects.
He said the government would ask Parliament for permission to borrow the money, which "will help ease the burdens of the economic crisis."
Thailand, like its export-dependent Southeast Asian neighbors, has been battered by the slump in global demand.
On Friday, Finance Minister Korn Jatikavanich forecast Thailand's exports would fall 10 percent, or about 500 billion to 700 billion baht ($13.8 billion to $19.4 billion), this year due to the global financial crisis. Exports account for 65 percent of the country's GDP. Exports posted their steepest fall in 12 years in January as demand for the country's cars, hard drives and electrical goods evaporated.
Tourism, which accounts for about 6 percent of the economy, has also slumped since anti-government protesters shut down Bangkok's two main airports for a week late last year just as the high season began.
The magnitude of the crisis in the tourism industry was underlined last week when Thai Airways International, the national airline, announced a 21.3 billion baht ($590.2 million) net loss for 2008, its first loss in 43 years.
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