BANGKOK, 4 January 2013 The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has reported that during the months of January to November 2012, Thai outward foreign direct investment topped 550 billion baht, the highest value in history.
In the first 11 month of 2012, many Thai entrepreneurs moved their capital overseas to start new production bases, invest in stocks and bonds, and take over foreign enterprises. The capital outflow was recorded at over 18 billion US dollars, a bit more than 550 billion baht; much higher than that of 2011, which was worth only 8.5 billion US dollars, or 254 billion baht. The increase accounted for 116 percent rise year-on-year, according to the BoT.
The Central Bank further revealed that the relocation of Thai enterprises’ production bases was aimed at reducing production costs and avoiding the adverse impact of the 300-baht-minimum wage policy, which took effect nationwide on January 1st, 2013; in addition, the production base relocation was a good move for the Thai companies in order to gear themselves up for the ASEAN Economic Community, scheduled to be formed on December 31st, 2015.
On the other hand, last year’s capital inflow was considerably low when compared with the outflow, as Thailand saw only 8.4 billion US dollars, around 254 billion baht, in foreign direct investment or FDI .
