The deficit stood at 283 million dollars, marking the first current account shortfall in nine months, the Bank of Thailand said, but adding the figure sharply narrowed from a current account deficit of 1.5 billion dollars in April last year.

"We took the deficit mainly due to high oil imports. Although the value of exports rose year-on-year, it came lower than the import value due to a slowdown in production," said a central bank official.

Exports in April increased 11.8 percent from a year earlier to 9.1 billion dollars and imports slipped 2.1 percent to 9.6 billion dollars, resulting in a trade deficit of 520 million dollars.