Thailand says to miss export goal on soft demand

Rain clouds hover in the sky over buildings in Huay Kwang district in Bangkok, Thailand on Sept. 27, 2012. Thai exports are likely to miss growth targets for 2012, a top official said Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, as the global economic slowdown and a slump in rice shipments hit demand. AP PHOTO

BANGKOK—Thai exports are likely to miss growth targets for 2012, a top official said Wednesday, as the global economic slowdown and a slump in rice shipments hit demand.

Export growth for the whole year could reach five percent – 10 percentage points lower than forecast – with sales to overseas markets slipping more than one percent between January and September to $172.35 billion.

“We probably cannot reach the figure of 15 percent for export growth,” Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol told reporters.

Imports were up 5.76 percent to $184.3 billion January-September, creating a trade deficit of $11.95 billion, compared with a $5.3 billion surplus in the same period of 2011, he added.

Thai rice shipments were worst hit, suffering a near 37-percent slump in the first nine months of the year, according to the commerce ministry’s estimates.

Analysts say a controversial government scheme launched by the Thai government to buy rice from farmers for 50 percent more than the market price has hit the competitiveness and created massive stockpiles of the grain.

“Thailand has lost 40 to 50 percent of (its share of) the world rice market,” Thanavath Phonvichai, an economist from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, told AFP.

But the scheme has improved the lives of the farmers and bolstered domestic food security, the economist added, quoting research predicting that Thailand could regain its status as the world’s No. 1 rice exporter next year.

Thai exports showed signs of recovery in September, with shipments increasing 0.20 percent to $20.78 billion on the corresponding period in 2011.