In December, the manufacturing production index (MPI) contracted 8.19% from a year earlier, weighed down by lower production of hard disk drives and plastic pellets, the industry ministry said. Factory output is likely to fall again in January due to slowing global demand and a high base despite some support from increased domestic activity, the ministry said in a statement. "The impact of the global slowdown has come earlier than expected," ministry official Siripen Kiatfuengfoo told a news conference. In 2023, the ministry forecast output would increase 2.5%-3.5%, after a 0.62% rise in 2022.
The MPI figures compared with a forecast fall in output of
6.0% for December in a Reuters poll, after November's revised
5.08% year-on-year decline.
Industrial goods account for about 80% of total exports,
which in December contracted 14.6% from a year earlier.
(Reporting by Orathai Sriring, Kitiphong Thaichareon and
Satawasin Staporncharnchai
Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
