Economy shrinks 6.4% y/y in Q3, less than expected

Thailand’s economy improved in the third quarter after the government eased restrictions on movement and implemented a series of stimulus measures while getting the country’s Covid-19 outbreak largely under control.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 6.4% from a year ago, the National Economic and Social Development Council said Monday, recovering from the prior quarter’s revised 12.1% contraction at the peak of the outbreak. The figure was better than the median estimate of 8.8% contraction in a Bloomberg survey of 19 economists. The council also raised its full-year forecast to a 6% contraction, from an earlier estimate of a 7.3% to 7.8% drop.

With tourism and trade…