Thailand’s industrial output fell for the 8th consecutive month in May with exports remaining sluggish despite a small growth in industrial product shipments, data showed on Friday. The country’s manufacturing production index (MPI) dropped 3.14 percent last month from a year earlier, marking the lowest contraction since February, according to the Ministry of Industry. However, the May figure jumped 14.23 percent from a month earlier after a 21.28 percent plunge month-on-month in April, the ministry said in a statement. For the first five months of the year, the index sank 4.49 percent from one year earlier, the statement said. The reading came after the commerce ministry data revealed that Thailand’s exports, a key driver of economic growth, slumped for eight consecutive months in May, with industrial product shipments only growing 1.5 percent year-on-year. Despite significant declines in iron and steel, garment, and rubber manufacturing, production of cars and motorcycles, air conditioners, and sugar remained supportive of industrial output growth, said the ministry’s Office of Industrial Economics Director-General Warawan Chitaroon. The ministry expects that a recovery in the tourism sector will continue to boost domestic consumption and industrial production, along with the support of an economic recovery in major trading partners such as China and Japan, the official told a news conference. Despite that, uncertainty concerning the formation of the country’s new government is affecting investor confidence, while the El Nino phenomenon, which causes lower rainfall than usual, can have an impact on the raw materials used in the agricultural processing industry.