The Finance Ministry has revised its 2018 economic growth forecast from 4.2% to 4.5%, the highest rate in five years, on rising exports and pubic investment.
Its spokesperson Kulaya Tantitemit said Thursday that the previous peak was 7.2% in 2012 due to the low base of 0.7% in the previous year, when the country was hit by the great flood.
Risk factors eased, especially external ones. Consequently, the economy expanded at 4.8% in the first quarter, the highest in five years, she said.
The Finance Ministry expected the world economic growth rate at nearly 4%, compared to the previous forecast of 3.7% by the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO). Besides, the ministry predicted exports would grow by more than 8% this year.
Public investment should grow by almost 10%, up from earlier estimated 8.9%. Investment by the private sector should also increase by at least 3%, down from an earlier prediction of 3.8%, Miss Kulaya said.
Inflation should run at 1.4%, up from 1.2% predicted earlier, she said.
Soraphol Tulayasathien, FPO's macroeconomics director, said risk factors to the world economy were subsiding, especially a trade dispute between China and the United States and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Besides, the US sanction against Iran should not have severe impacts because many other countries including Britain and France did not follow, he said.
He also said that oil prices should drop after the US finished its shale pipelines.