ADB puts Thailand’s GDP growth forecast at 3.2%
The Asian Development Bank has slightly revised up its forecast for Thailand’s 2016 economic growth from 3 per cent to 3.2 per cent, praising the country’s investment in infrastructure. “Government infrastructure investment is a key contributor to growth in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand,” said a new ADB report. The Bank of Thailand’s forecast for this year is 3.2-per-cent growth in gross domestic product. In an update of its flagship annual economic publication, “Asian Development Outlook 2016”, the ADB kept its 2017 GDP growth forecast for Thailand unchanged from its March estimates. Infrastructure investment in the Philippines and Thailand is a reason that convinced the development bank that Southeast Asian economies would see growth edge up to 4.5 per cent in 2016, from 4.4 per cent in 2015. This countered sluggish export demand and drought that caused agriculture to contract in all these economies except Indonesia in the first half of 2016.
