The Thai economy is projected to expand slightly faster than assessed in
the previous Monetary Policy Report thanks to the higher-than-expected growth
in private consumption in the second quarter of 2016. This positive development
helps compensate for the contraction in merchandise exports owing to a projected
slowdown in trading partners’ economies post-Brexit and Thailand’s own
structural problems in the export sector. For 2017, the Thai economy is expected
to grow at about the same rate as this year, driven mainly by private consumption
and public spending and also by expansion in tourism.