THE Thai economic rebound is beating expectations.
February 2013 estimates by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) point to robust private spending in both consumption and investment which pushed quarter four 2012 GDP growth to close on 19%, exceeding 3.1% in the third quarter and the 15.4% median by Dow Jones survey of economists. Economic activity was earlier brought down sharply by natural disasters of unprecedented proportions (first, the impact of Japanese earthquake and tsunami in the second quarter 2011 via supply chain disruptions and later, massive flooding in quarter four 2011, the worst in nearly 70 years) from a +7.8% clip in 2010 to hardly any growth in 2011 as a whole (fourth quarter 2011 contracted 9%). Total losses were about 3%-4% of GDP.
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