Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Highlights

• GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, is a measure of the value of a country's production of goods and services. After being adjusted for inflation, GDP can be used as an indication of economic growth, whether year-on-year or quarter-on-quarter. Expansion in the GDP is an indication of an expansion in the national economy.

• Thailand's second-quarter GDP for 2012 grew 4.2 percent over the previous year, higher than what had been projected by most analysts. The second-quarter 2012 increase in GDP was a result of rebounding industrial production post-flooding and higher spending of the public and private sectors, especially those projects that benefited from government's post-flood recovery programs and stimulus measures. Continuing economic recovery after the catastrophic flooding in late 2011 through to the second-quarter of 2012 helped the Thai economy resume growth of 2.2 percent in the first half of 2012, following a 2.8 percent contraction recorded in the second half of 2011.

• For 2012, KResearch projects that the Thai economy will expand approximately 5 percent (median value, base-case scenario), which would be considerably higher than the paltry 0.1 percent growth recorded in 2011 as a result of the massive flooding toward the end of the year. If not, the GDP growth for 2012 is projected in a range of 4.5-5.5 percent, where the lower range of the projection should be able to brace for external risks, e.g., Eurozone debt crisis, slowing Chinese economy and volatile crude oil prices during the second half of 2012