Thailand's investment applications between January and March increased 77% from a year earlier to 186 billion baht ($5.4 billion), led by projects in the electronics, food and automobile sectors, the country's investment agency said on Monday.
The higher investment was helped by the reopening of major investing countries and a trend of companies relocating production bases to the Southeast Asian country to reduce geopolitical risks, the Board of Investment (BOI) said in a statement.
In the first quarter of 2023, foreign investment pledges alone were worth 155 billion baht, up 10% year-on-year, it said.
South Korea was Thailand's biggest investor in the quarter ending March, investing 31.4 billion baht, followed by Singapore with 29.7 billion baht, China with 25 billion baht and Japan with 24.8 billion baht, the BOI said.
In 2022, investment applications rose to 664.6 billion baht, 39% higher than the previous year.
Meanwhile, Thai banks' non-performing loans stood at 2.68% of lending at the end of March, down from 2.73% at the end of 2022, helped by debt restructuring, the central bank said on Monday.
The banking system remained resilient with high levels of capital, loan-loss provisions and liquidity, the Bank of Thailand said in a statement.
