BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's economy shrank 2.2 per cent in the three months to March from the previous quarter - the first contraction in more than a year - as manufacturing output fell, official data showed on Monday.
The decline followed a blistering year-long recovery from devastating floods in late 2011 that hit major factories north of the capital Bangkok and caused a double-digit drop in gross domestic product (GDP).
On a year-on-year basis, GDP expanded by 5.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, the government's National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) reported.
That marked a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter of 2012, when growth hit a record high of 19.1 per cent, according to an updated estimate.