The Commerce Ministry plans to form alliances with six giant department-store chains in China that have a combined total of more than 300 branches. The products will be on Chinese shelves later this year and include food and home decorations.

Chantra said the current strength of the baht would only continue for a short period and should ease in line with the other Southeast Asian currencies.

Moreover, signs that the current political turmoil could be resolved should also be favourable for the Thai economy, she said.

The country's economic condition tends to move in the same direction as the export rate, which has risen since the beginning of the year.

Last month's exports should show growth of less than 10 per cent on year. Export growth for all of this year is expected to be 15-17.5 per cent.

EC to investigate Thai exporters

European canned-corn manufactures plan to urge the EU to investigate Thai exporters, to see whether they are breaching anti-dumping regulations.

Thai exporters recently met EU officials in Brussels to provide more information on export prices and production costs.

However, EU manufacturers claim that Thai canned-corn exports were growing rapidly in the market and had hurt them during the past five years.

The Commerce Ministry said exports from Thailand to the EU had sky-rocketed 100 per cent, due to the large number of manufacturers. As a result, they help strengthen manufacturing and boost exports.

Last year, Thailand's canned-corn exports were worth Bt3.33 billion, of which Bt1.34 billion was from the EU.

No price rise for fizzy drinks

The Internal Trade Department said yesterday it did not think the retail price of carbonated drinks would increase anytime soon.

Department deputy director-general Orasa Mongkongkuntivong

said a retail-price increase would only be approved if it were proven that prices for oil, transportation and raw materials were affecting production costs.

"We have no intention of allowing the retail price of carbonated drinks to increase by Bt1 per bottle during Songkran," she said.

Airline campaign launched

Caretaker Transport Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal launched the New Route Asia 2006 campaign yesterday, saying the event would be a major contributor to the promotion of the country's new international airport.

Suvarnabhumi Airport is scheduled to begin operations in this year's third quarter

Pongsak said that almost 80 airlines had joined the campaign. New Route Asia brings together the region's airlines and airports, to discuss air-service opportunities within the Asia-Pacific. Over 400 delegates are expected at this year's event, which would be a record attendance.

S&P gives ATC 'BBB' rating

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) today affirmed its "BBB" corporate-credit rating on The Aromatics (Thailand) Plc (ATC).

The outlook is stable. At the same time, S&P also affirmed its "BBB" rating on the US$300-million (Bt11.45 billion) senior unsecured bond issued by ATC.

"The rating on ATC reflects its strong ownership and support by state-owned oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc, favourable cost efficiency, high-capacity utilisation rate, strong domestic-market position and intermediate financial profile," said S&P credit analyst Royston Quek.

"Nevertheless, the rating on ATC is constrained by inherent industry risk, its small-scale operations and heavy reliance on PTT."

Industry confidence down a bit

The Industry Confidence Index stood at 152.16 per cent in February, slightly down from January's 152.54 per cent, due to the country's political situation and the fact that almost all industries had suspended manufacturing, in order to carry out repairs, Industrial Economics Office director-general Achaka Sriboonrang Blimberg said yesterday.