In February, Thailand’s rubber prices had slightly changed in line with the future markets. Natural rubber situation continues to slow down in line with global economic growth as the economic factors, drought, closed-tapping season, and the spreading of the new Pestalotiopsis fungal disease, which infected more rubber plantations. The spread of the new disease situation was worrisome because the disease is readily spread by wind, which causes severe and successive defoliation, decreases yield and may cause rubber tree death. To minimize the crisis situation, The Rubber Authority of Thailand suggests that rubber farmers persistently observe the symptoms of the disease (spotted leaf, leaf fall, etc.) which will be the accumulation of the disease. Therefore, the smallholders must not move any parts of infected rubber trees to prevent the spreading of the disease. For any further information, please contact the local office of The Rubber Authority of Thailand. Recently, there is a global spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus impact on the global economy and markets so far. The coronavirus’ impact on the global demand of face masks and disposable gloves continuously rises.

In 2020, Thailand’s economy tends to expand lower than the expectation and the potential level, as a result of an escalating global spread of COVID-19, the delay of the Annual Budget Act and drought. These situations have affected business as well as employment. Tourism tends to drop. Furthermore, the exports also tend to slow down in line with Thailand's trading partners. Meanwhile, Thailand’s Private Consumption Expenditure is pressured by the household income, which tends to slow down in the service sector, agricultural sector, industry sector. Besides, household debt is at a high level. On February 5, 2020, Monetary Policy Committee held the 1st/2020 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee and the meeting decided to cut the interest as 1.00% per year from 1.25% per year, effected immediately.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) informed that the manufacturing sector’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of the US down to 50.1 in February from 50.9 in January. Meanwhile, Thailand’s PMI dropped to 49.5 in February from 49.9 in January. For the oil sector, crude oil prices were pressured after the number of infected patients outside China such as Iran, South Korea, and Italy has risen. Besides, Arab countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Iraq have also reported the increase of the infected patients. Because of the escalating global spread of COVID-19, markets were worried about the drop in crude oil demand. Furthermore, the meeting of the Opec+ alliance will be held on 5-6 March 2020. The market expects that the Opec+ will reduce the production volume of skimming refineries 600,000 barrels per day from the current reducing the production volume as 1.7 million barrels.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has announced the crude oil volume in stock on 21 February 2020, up 0.45 million barrels from the previous week, lower than the expectation of the analyst as 2.0 million barrels.

In January 2020, Thailand exported 436,603.46 tons of natural rubber (including compound rubber), up 1.11% from December 2019 and up 4.19% YoY, generating export income of 17.5 billion baht, up 1.96% from December 2019, up 3.98% YoY.

 In the tyre sector, in January 2020, Thailand exported 10.68 million units of all tyres, up 2.74% YoY, with an export value of 13.5 billion baht, up 1.28% YoY.