How are Thailand GDP Figures Computed?
Annual GDP figures are disseminated in both millions of baht and chained volume prices. Quarterly GDP figures, however, are disseminated in millions of baht and constant 1988 prices. The office compiles data by applying the production and expenditure approach. However, the production approach is the most reliable and thus the most important because reliability on production prices is higher than on expenditure. In particular, the quality of export and import prices is very low.
The production approach sums the gross value of output of various economic activities net of the intermediate consumption—cost of goods and services used to produce the final goods. The breakdown by the production approach shows output estimates for economic sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, construction etc.
Finally, the expenditure approach calculates GDP through the demand side. It estimates total production by calculating total expenditure of money. The breakdown by expenditure shows estimates for: households’ consumption expenditure, government consumption expenditure, gross fixed capital formation, change in inventories and the external sector