Post-crisis export performance in Thailand

Abstract

This paper examines post-crisis export performance in Thailand against the backdrop of pre-crisis experience and ongoing changes in patterns of international production. Following a stage-setting survey of trends and patterns of export performance over the past four decades, it focuses on two key themes central to the current policy debate, namely the implications of China's emergence as a key player in world markets in labour intensive manufactured goods and the link between the crisis-propelled real exchange rate depreciation and export performance. There is strong evidence to suggest that the "?China fear' is vastly exaggerated. Real exchange rate depreciation has been a significant determinant of the post-crisis export recovery. However, the growing importance in the export composition of parts and components within vertically integrated cross-border production processes has tended to weaken the nexus of real exchange rate and export growth.