BANGKOK, Jan 7 – Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittirat Na Ranong affirmed Thailand’s economy remained strong, despite the country facing a massive flood crisis late last year, and he was confident the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could expand more than 7 per cent this year.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Saturday was absent from her weekly TV and radio programme, “Yingluck Government Meets the People,” but assigned Mr Kittirat, who also represented the premier as chair of the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management, along with the Strategic Committee for Reconstruction and Future Development chairman Virabongsa Ramangkura, to clarify the water management plan and Thailand’s economic prospects in 2012.

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