Thailand Continuing With Fiscal Recovery

With an International Monetary Fund rescue program scheduled to end today, Thailand shows continued signs of an export-fueled recovery from its greatest economic crisis in modern times, analysts say. Economic growth figures for the first quarter of 2000, to be released today, should show a continuing positive trend despite a slight slowdown in the manufacturing sector, regional economists said. Unemployment is also easing. The economists forecast gross-domestic-product growth in the January-March quarter at 5.2%. Their forecast for GDP growth for all of 2000 is 4.98%, compared with the government’s target of 4.5%. An IMF team has just completed its final review of the Thai economy under the 34-month, $14-billion rescue program. Thailand’s economy began to recover in the first quarter of last year from a crisis that had sent the country’s economy into a tailspin in mid-1997 and spread to other Asian nations. The IMF stepped in to provide a cash injection and advice on reforms.