Thailand maintains slow, fragile economic recovery in May

The Thai economic recovery continued to be slow and fragile in May, with the main drivers being the tourism sector and public spending on capital expenditure, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) said Tuesday.

Merchandise exports remained sluggish and private spending softened in line with contracted merchandise imports, the BOT said in a statement on the economic conditions for May.

Tourism continued to expand thanks mostly to an increase in the number of Chinese and Malaysian tourists, while the number of tourists from Russia started to improve after declining in the preceding period in line with their economic slowdown, according to the bank.

In addition, it noted that public spending, particularly on capital expenditure for transportation and irrigation, continued to expand following contractual obligation bound in the earlier period.

Meanwhile, the bank attributed the sluggish merchandise exports to "the slowdowns in ASEAN and the Chinese economies coupled with fragile economic recovery in major trading partners, especially the U.S., Japan and Europe."

"Overall, the value of merchandise exports declined markedly from the same period last year across the board," the statement said.

The unemployment rate remained low and was unchanged from the previous month, while headline inflation remained negative and the current account registered a surplus, the bank said. Endi