BANGKOK, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's industrial output declined for the sixth straight month in March as weak global demand hampered exports, data showed on Friday.
The country's manufacturing production index (MPI) dropped 4.56 percent in March from a year earlier but climbed 5.47 percent month-on-month, according to the Ministry of Industry.
The March figure came after a 2.38-percent and 4.81-percent year-on-year fall in February and January, respectively. For the first quarter of the year, the index fell 3.94 percent from one year earlier, the ministry said in a statement.
The reading came after commerce ministry data showed the country's exports, a major driver of its economic growth, shrank for a six consecutive month in March.
Despite sustained declines in hard disk drives, furniture and plastic pellet manufacturing, air conditioner production expanded 7.09 percent from a year earlier last month, the highest in eight years, due to demand from Southeast Asian countries, the industry ministry's Office of Industrial Economics Director-General Worawan Chitaroon told a news conference.
The ministry expects industrial output to improve in April, driven by domestic demand on the back of the tourism recovery, while expansion of investment and the construction sector supports manufacturing production, Worawan said. ■