Thailand’s Center for Economic and Business Forecasting (CEBF) has reported that Thailand’s Consumer Confidence Index during April decreased for the fourth month in a row, and was also the lowest for seven months.
CEBF Director Thanawat Polwichai said the Index DURING April dropped in all fields because consumers were still unconfident in the slowly recovering Thai economy. Persistent drought and agricultural price drop still affected the consumer confidence in April. Consumers still felt that their current and future income did not cover their expenses, said the Director.
As for the export sector, it started to improve in the first quarter with the value of around THB 54 billion, increasing from the same period last year by 0.9 percent. Improving exports as well as increasing global oil prices are expected to boost domestic consumption from late in the second quarter to early in the third quarter this year.
The CEBF Director suggested the Government inject money into the system from May to June while waiting for investment in mega projects to have an impact on the economy.
He also predicted that the Thai economy would expand by 2.8 percent in the first quarter this year, and the 2016 growth rate would be around 3 percent to 3.5 percent.