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Car exports, TISI and public debt up in May |
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 Thailand
A total of 85,988 vehicles were exported in May, up 122.44 per cent on May 2011 and an increase of 55.12 per cent over April, Surapong Paisitpatanapong, spokesman for the Automotive Industry Club, said on Wednesday.
Vehicle export value for the month stood at 41.45 billion baht, an increase of 138.7 per cent on the same month last year, said Mr Surapong.
Car exports over the first five months of the year (Jan-May) were also up from the same period last year, by 11.34 per cent to 362.142 units with a total value of 170.73 billion baht, up 19.57 per cent, he said.
Domestic sales of cars in May hit a new record at 115,943 units, up 107.6 per cent from last May and an increase of 32.07 per cent on April.
Sales were up substantially because all car makers can now again operate at full capacity and can fill the large number of advance orders placed by clients, boosted by the government’s first car buyer policy, said Mr Payungsak.
Domestic vehicle sales from January to May totalled 483,052 units, up 33.5 per cent from the same period last year, he added.
Output in May was up from May 2011 by as much as 105.29 per cent and by 43.01 per cent on April, to 202,834 units. It was the first time that monthly car output has been above 200,000 units and was a 50-year record high, the spokesman said.
Vehicle output for the first five months of the year was up 28.48 per cent from the same period last year to stand at 844,031 units, he added.
Payungsak Chartsuthipol, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), said on Wednesday that the Thai industries sentiment index (TISI) for May went up to 106.0, from 104.0 reported in April.
Industry confidence had now been above the 100 level for four straight months, sending a signal that the production sector had strong confidence that the economy would continue to grow, said Mr Payungsak.
The FTI's industry confidence survey in May involved 1,110 manufacturers in 42 industry groups.
However, the survey also found that industry confidence for the next three months was down from 112.6 reported in April to 111.1 in May, he said.
He attributed the drop in future industry confidence to the fall in orders as a result of the euro zone debt crisis, increase production costs due to the 300 baht daily wage policy, and global oil prices.
Asked about risk factors that could hurt performance of the production sector, 61.2 per cent of the surveyed manufacturers pointed to political conflict and 54 per cent of them said the fragile global economy.
Mr Payungsak said the manufacturers wanted the government postpone its plan to implement the 300 baht daily minimum wage policy in the 70 remaining provinces in January 2013, to come up with measures to help SMEs affected by the wage hike policy, to promote domestic consumption and to bring about political stability.
Chakkrit Parapuntakul, director-general of Public Debt Management Office, said outstanding public debt as of the end of April 2012 totalled 4.61 trillion baht, or 42.40 per cent of gross domestic product.
Of the total, 3.41 trillion baht were debts directly acquired by the government and 1.04 trillion baht were loans sought by non-financial institution state enterprises, said Mr Chakkrit.
A total of 158.59 billion baht were debts owed by financial institution state-owned firms and the remaining 7.08 billion baht were loans sought by other state agencies.
The public debt was up from March 2012 by 141.57 billion baht, the director-general said.
BangkokPost.com
20 June 2012
Photo Caption
Payungsak Chartsuthipol (Photo by Natthiti Ampriwan) |
