Thailand's political unrest to sap GDP growth: economist

The Thai economy will expand 3.3-3. 4 percent this year, short of the 3.5 percent forcast, if the political protests are prolonged to the end of the year, an economist said Friday.

Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, urged the government to put an end to the ongoing political conflict, which is weighing on consumer confidence, tourism and investment.

Consumer confidence in October plunged to its lowest level in 19 months.The expected fall of 5-10 percent of foreign arrivals and the loss of 10-20 billion baht (320-640 million U.S. dollars) from their spending would pose a main drag on economic growth, according to Thanavath.

The economist expected next year's GDP to grow only 4.8-5 percent, instead of 5.1 percent.