BANGKOK, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's state planning agency on Tuesday unveiled its first economic quarter's reading, indicating a cut in its forecast for 2019 growth to 3.3-3.8 percent from 4.1 percent.
The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) said during a press conference in Bangkok that the GDP grew 2.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, after a 3.6 percent expansion logged in the previous quarter.
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told Thai media that delays in private investment during the general elections also dampened GDP in the first quarter.
"The Thai economy is likely to stay below the 3.5 percent growth benchmark projected earlier because of the global economic slowdown that weakened exports and ailing domestic consumption," said Somkid, who heads the nation's economic portfolio.
Somkid said on Thai TV that he expected the economic slowdown to continue until the second quarter of the year, as the private sector is still baulking at investment, waiting for a new government to form.
According to NESDB's report, the state agency cut its 2019 export growth outlook to 2.2 percent from 4.1 percent.
Thailand's exports, worth about two-thirds of the economy, dropped 3.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.
In 2018, they rose 7.2 percent.
NESDB said growth should improve in the second half as exports are expected to gradually recover.
The report also contributed the economic slowdown to a slight drop in tourism and rising household debt.
NESDB data showed that in the March quarter, private consumption rose 4.6 percent from a year earlier and private investment increased 4.4 percent, but public investment fell 0.1 percent.
As for January-March, the number of foreign tourists rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 4.3-percent rise in the previous three months.
