The dollar value of Thai exports rose 6.8% in April from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday, beating analysts’ expectations.
The reading compared with a forecast for a 0.35% year-on-year increase in a Reuters poll of economists, and followed a 10.9% decline in March.
Exports, a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, rose 1.4% in the first four months of 2024 from a year earlier.
The ministry has maintained its export growth target of 1% to 2% this year, after a fall of 1% in 2023.
In April, exports of industrial goods increased 9.2% year-on-year, while rice export volumes jumped 64.2%, it said.
Thailand, the world’s second-largest shipper of the grain after India, expects rice exports to exceed a target of 7.5 million this year.
April imports rose 8.3% from a year earlier, against a rise of 5.05% forecast in the poll, leading to a trade deficit $1.64 billion for the month, compared with a forecast deficit of $1.7 billion.