Thailand's export challenge
Post Reporters
With exports continuing their downwards slide and prospects bleak for the next year, questions linger about what's caused the big decline in Thai exports, which account for up to 70% of Thailand's GDP.
Some blame external factors such as the slower-than-expected global economy, low oil and farm prices and the weak currency policy of several manufacturing countries.
But many argue that troubled exports stem largely from structural problems in the Thai economy itself.
Thailand's exports have hardly changed from 20 to 30 years ago and its key exports remain agricultural commodities like rice, rubber, tapioca and fruit.
Up-and-coming neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have rising production capacity and quality that is competitive with Thai products.
Thailand's industrial sector is also seeing mounting challenges from higher wages and worker shortages, particularly in labour-intensive industries like garments.
Nearly all garment makers have shifted their production base to neighbouring countries to make the most of cheap labour, tariff exemptions and bountiful raw materials.
HARD DISK INDUSTRY DECLINE
According to a recent Credit Suisse report, Thailand's market share in global hard disk drive production has declined dramatically and never recovered after the 2011 flood crisis. Multinational corporations (multinationals) have shifted production bases to China and the Philippines.
A surge in manufacturing wages between 2012 and 2013 could be one reason behind the erosion of competitiveness in Thai manufacturing, Credit Suisse said.
The rise was driven by the minimum wage increase and the rice-pledging scheme introduced by the Yingluck Shinawatra government in 2011.
By attracting labour to the agriculture sector, the rice pledging programme may have worsened labour shortages in other sectors, adding to upward wage pressure, the report said.
Thailand's manufacturing sector is also likely to have a slower growth trajectory because car production is plateauing.
Thailand's auto sector started from a small base and built up very rapidly, but the operations are very big now and Asean demand for vehicles is not expected to grow very fast.
Most Thai businesses remain reluctant to upgrade their businesses, cut costs, increase productivity, develop innovations and better understand customer needs. Particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which keep calling for and waiting for government assistance.
COMPETITIVE DEVALUATION OR CURRENCY WAR
Currency depreciation means more baht per dollar and a fall in the value of the baht (a fall from 32 to 36 baht per dollar, for example).
Ordinarily, this depreciation would make Thai exports less expensive and more competitive, leading to a rebound in exports.
But Thailand's trade rivals have also seen their currencies depreciate by the same magnitude or more.
Countries often engage in competitive devaluation to boost exports at the expense of trade rivals (called a beggar-thy-neighbour strategy).
But the depreciation game doesn't let every country play the same game at the same time, given that one country's advantage is the others' disadvantage.
The baht has fallen by 8.26% against the greenback this year, while Malaysia's ringgit -- Asia's worst-performing currency amid scandals related to an investment company tied to Prime Minister Najib Razak -- is down 18.3%.
Indonesia's rupiah is the second-worst performer on rising fears that Southeast Asia's biggest economy is vulnerable to capital outflows triggered by its large current account deficit. The currency has plunged 8.53% this year.
The steep declines in emerging market currencies prompted China to jump onto the currency depreciation bandwagon also, devaluing the yuan for the first time in two decades in a bid to maintain a competitive edge in exports.
A World Bank 2014 study "Depreciations Without Exports? Global Value Chains and the Exchange Rate Elasticity of Exports" found that currency weakness between 2004 and 2012 was only half as effective at stimulating exports as it had been between 1996 and 2003 (read report for free here, pdf here).
The baht's weakness has also pushed up import costs and half of Thailand's imports are for re-export.
The weakening baht might cause Thai manufacturers engaged in re-exporting activity to reap lesser benefits from baht depreciation, since they have to shoulder greater import costs for re-exported raw materials.
The baht's value could depreciate further with the US central bank or Fed's looming interest rate hike, and a currency war could drag on as countries try to gain benefits from greater export value through currency depreciation.
There could be many countries in the currency war including China, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore whose economies all have not fully recovered.
A rise in global oil prices next year could also weaken the baht since Thailand is a major net importer of oil.
The baht is predicted to stay at 36.4 to 36.6 to the US dollar into next year.
Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand should have greater incentives to weaken their currencies if the yuan depreciation continues, as all three economies have weak growth outlooks, very low inflation and manageable external debt, but high household debt could still mute the credit transmission channel of monetary policy (i.e. households have borrowed so much, they can't borrow anymore, so the central bank using lower interest rates in its monetary policy to depreciate the currency and make it weaker will have limited effectiveness).
CHINA'S ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN
China's economic slowdown and tumbling commodity prices could push global GDP growth to its lowest level since the global financial crisis of 2009.
These and other forecasts have set a gloomy tone for export-reliant countries like Thailand and suggest weak demand for exported products.
The slowdown in China undoubtedly had spillover effects in the rest of the world, given the country's sheer size (13% of the world economy in dollar terms).
As the world's second-biggest economy, China is well-known as the world's largest producer of manufactured goods and, most important, is a major trading partner of various countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa.
South Korea's exports registered a 14.7% slump in September, their biggest decline since August 2009 (China accounts for a quarter of South Korean exports). Singapore's key non-oil exports fell at an annual rate of 8.4% in August.
In Thailand, exports are highly likely to end the year with a third straight contraction after a sharp fall in the eight months to August.
Thailand's major exports to the US are electronic parts, a category now fiercely contested by Vietnam.
In summary, Thailand's structural problems in terms of export competitiveness, lower commodity prices and China's economic slowdown are the root causes of the disappointing figures for Thai exports.