BANGKOK: Thailand's economy shrank 7.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, battered by a drop in exports and slump in tourism, the government said yesterday.

It was the biggest decline since the 1998, when Thailand was struggling to extricate itself from the Asian financial crisis, according to the Office of National and Economic and Social Development Board.

The contraction, coming after gross domestic product fell 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter, confirms that Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy is in a recession - usually defined by two straight quarterly drops in GDP.