Economy to pickup in second half

Thailand’s economy would pickup in the second half of the year as there were signs of recovery in several trade partners the country relies on heavily for exports, Kirida Phaophichit, a senior economist at the World Bank’s Bangkok office, predicted on Friday.

In April, the World Bank  predicted that the country’s economy would contract by 2.7%.

Ms Kirida said as there are several factors, her bank would revise its economic shrinkage projection for Thailand once again in October.

Over the past five months the government had performed well, quickly coming up with stimulus measures, restoring  confidence and distributing seed money to people as planned, even though it had failed to cover all groups of people, she said.