THAILAND’S manufacturing production index (MPI) in August dropped 7.53 per cent from a year earlier, the industry ministry said on Thursday, as exports slowed amid soft global demand.

The figure compared with a forecast for a 6.5 per cent year-on-year drop for August in a Reuters poll, and followed July’s 4.43 per cent decline.

Output has been impacted by a global economic slowdown, the ministry said.

In the January-August period, factory output fell 4.95 per cent year-on-year. Industrial goods account for about 80 per cent of total exports, which in August unexpectedly rose 2.6 per cent on-year.

The industry ministry last month cut its 2023 MPI forecast to a fall of 2.8 per cent to 3.8 per cent, from a previous forecast of zero to 1 per cent growth. REUTERS