bangkok april 28 reuters  thailands economy slowed down in march compared with the previous month as exports declined but the service sector continued to improve driven by higher foreign tourist numbers the central bank said on friday economic activity is expected to have improved in april and exports should gradually get better along with a recovery in the economies of trading partners the bank of thailand bot said in a statement in the first quarter the economy continued to improve from the previous period mainly due to the tourism sector which bolstered services and private consumption the bot said last month the bot trimmed its projections for economic growth to 36 this year and 38 next year down from earlier forecasts of 37 and 39 respectively but it raised its forecasts for foreign tourist arrivals to 28 million this year and 35 million next year up from 255 million and 34 million respectively that compared with a record of nearly 40 million visitors in prepandemic 2019 thailand recorded a current account surplus of 48 billion in march after a surplus of 13 billion in the previous month reporting by orathai sriring and kitiphong thaichareon editing by martin petty