The central bank’s economic summary for January showed that manufacturing production contracted in several categories due to sluggish merchandise exports.

In the month, export value contracted 9.3 per cent from the same period last year, the central bank said. It is worse than the Commerce Ministry’s data, which is based on customs data, that showed 8.91 per cent contraction.

Three main reasons were attributed to the export decline: an economic slowdown in China andAsean countries; a phase out in short-term supportive

factors such as a deceleration in exports of new models of commercial cars and a slowdown in exports of optical appliance and instruments owing to a decline in the global demand for electronics; and a continued decline in export prices of petroleum-related products.

Private investment indicators remained subdued in line with sufficient capacity utilisation and positive attributes from the acceleration in commercial car purchases started to level off. At the same time, investment in alternative energy and telecommunication slightly decelerated. Meanwhile, overall corporate financing stabilised, largely contributed by an increase in corporate debt issuances.

Private consumption also decelerated slightly after temporary factors waned off, particularly the acceleration in car purchases and household expenditure at the end of last year. In addition, the unusually cold temperature during the month of January led to a slight decrease in household electricity consumption. At the same time, an incremental decline in consumer confidence, due partly to concerns

over the drought situation and the global economic slowdown, has provided less support to consumption momentum. Nonetheless, stabilised non-farm income helped support the expansion of spending on nondurable goods and services.

Tourism and public spending continued to boost the economy in January.

The number of foreign tourists increased by 15 per cent on year, in line with the a continued increase in Chinese tourists as well as a pickup in tourist arrivals from Europe.

“Tourism sector continued to improve and remained the main driver of related service sector, especially wholesale and retail trade as well as logistics,” the central bank said.

On public spending, the central bank said that it continued to be well disbursed although overall performance decelerated somewhat due to a slight deceleration in non-budget disbursement, particularly on transportation and irrigation projects, after a rapid acceleration in the previous month.

On the stability front, a decrease in energy price was highlighted as a key factor that headline inflation remained negative at 0.53 per cent. The service sector in the month also helped boosted employment.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s current account surplus in the month hit US$4.1 billion, due partly to foreign direct investment in manufacturing and service sectors. Foreign inflows to the Thai debt market, driven by the US Federal Reserve’s signal of delays to further policy rate hikes as well as Bank of Japan’s easing, also boosted the surplus.