However, exports value would increase by at least 3 percentthis year, said Pimchanok Vonkorpon, Director-Generalof the Trade Policy and Strategy Office.
The prospects for strong export growth are supported byrising imports of raw materials and manufacturing commodities of majoreconomies, the official added.
In addition, as the US Federal Reserve has just raised itspolicy interest rate, the baht is likely to weaken, which would benefit theThai export sector.
In February, importsincreased by 20.36 percent to reach 6.85 billion USD. In the first two months,import value expanded by 12.39 percent to 33.13 billion USD due to rising priceof raw materials and capital goods.-VNA