Business operators plan to cut their export growth projection for the country this year to less than 3% as sentiment fades amid the US-China trade war and a slowing global economy.
The current projection is 3-5% growth in 2019, down from 5-7%, according to the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB).
It will be the second downgrade this year for the committee's export outlook.
In April, the JSCCIB cut its economic projection because the political situation after the general election on March 24 remained unstable. It cut its growth estimate for GDP from 4-4.3% to 3.7-4%.
The committee is maintaining its inflation projection for 2019 at 0.8-1.2%.
Supant Mongkolsuthree, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, said the group could possibly cut its export outlook further towards the end of the year after sentiment in the first four months did not improve as expected.
He said the trade war has made the negative impact more widespread at both the global and domestic levels.
"Business operators are noticing declining new shipment orders, while local purchasing power is quite low," said Mr Supant, who chaired yesterday's JSCCIB meeting.
"During the remaining months of 2019, the JSCCIB forecasts exports to suffer from the global economic instability from the US, China and Europe," he said. "Meanwhile, the US-China trade dispute is becoming more serious with the new tariffs imposed on China's products from May 10."
Kalin Sarasin, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the country's tourism sector is the only economic engine for now that can bring about positive GDP momentum in 2019.
"Amid the global economic slump, the tourism sector has suffered less of an impact, while spending by tourists remains high since Thailand is a top destination," Mr Kalin said.
Moreover, the JSCCIB is calling on the new government to speed up urgent economic measures to support the domestic economy and increase people's purchasing power and the prices of farm products.
Mr Supant said many business operators agree that new populist measures could stimulate the country's economy faster.
He said the JSCCIB wants the next government to set up a joint public-private sector consultative committee to solve the country's economic issues.
"The committee should meet every three months to monitor Thailand's economic sentiment and launch new measures immediately," Mr Supant said.
