Thailand’s industrial output declined for the sixth straight month in March as weak global demand hampered exports, the country’s Ministry of Industry has announced.
Accordingly, the country’s manufacturing production index (MPI) dropped 4.56 % in March from a year earlier but climbed 5.47 % month-on-month.
The March figure came after a 2.38 % and 4.81% year-on-year fall in February and January, respectively. For the first quarter of the year, the index fell 3.94 % from one year earlier, the ministry said in a statement.
Despite sustained declines in hard disk drives, furniture and plastic pellet manufacturing, air conditioner production expanded 7.09 % from a year earlier last month, the highest in eight years, due to demand from Southeast Asian countries, the industry ministry’s Office of Industrial Economics Director-General Worawan Chitaroon told a press conference.
The ministry expects industrial output to improve in April, driven by domestic demand on the back of the tourism recovery, while expansion of investment and the construction sector supports manufacturing production, Worawan said./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency