Thai Finance Ministry Raises 2012 Economic Growth Forecast

Thailand’s Finance Ministry raised its 2012 economic growth forecast for a second time as manufacturing and local demand recovered from the nation’s worst floods in almost 70 years.

Gross domestic product is estimated to expand by 5.2 percent to 6.2 percent, with a midpoint forecast of 5.7 percent, Somchai Sujjapongse, head of the fiscal policy office, said today in Bangkok. The ministry in March predicted the economy would grow about 5.5 percent this year.

Industrial output rose more than economists expected in May as supply constraints after last year’s floods eased, supporting Thailand’s economic recovery, a separate government report today showed. The industrial production index rose 5.53 percent from a year earlier, compared with the median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey for a 2.5 percent gain.

Thailand’s central bank this month maintained its estimate for gross domestic product growth at 6 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tony Jordan at tjordan3@bloomberg.net