Thailand’s CCI on the rise

BANGKOK, January 7 (TNA) - Thailand’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) appears to keep rising, with the index in December 2015 increasing for the third consecutive month to 76.1, also the highest in seven months, reflecting that consumers believed that the national economy was recovering from the government’s economic stimulus measures. Thanawat Phonvichai, Director of Bangkok-based University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Economic and Business Forecasting Centre, told journalists of the positive prospect on Thursday, saying consumers’ sentiment had improved as they believed in the gradual national economic recovery boosted by the government’s economic stimulus measures, especially on a tax rebate up to the maximum of 15,000 baht on goods purchased during the New Year Festival, from December 25–31, 2015. Thanawat pointed out that people’s spending during the New Year Festival had automatically raise the overall public spending in December 2015. Thanawat acknowledged that the Thai government's policy on the one-week tax rebate had boosted the national economy by five times, as money spent on people's shopping totaled about 17.59 billion baht, while the government lost only 3.1 billion baht in its tax revenue. The senior economist then projected that the Thai economy should grow by 3–5 per cent this year, but cautioning that drought this year could cause a 50-70 billion-damage to the national economy, as the amount of local farm products is expected to decline by 5 per cent, which could reduce local farmers’ income by more than 100 billion baht. Agreeing on the Thai government’s plan on spending nearly 200 billion baht to help boost local agriculturists’ income, the senior economist foresaw that the move would eventually benefit the national economy and encourage people to spend more money. According to latest reports, early drought is now witnessed in major waterways in the Thai Northeast and the central region, beginning to affect local households and farmlands. Meanwhile, Chukiat Opaswong, Advisory Chairman of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, told reporters that a global economic slowdown has also caused a drop in Thai rice prices, while Thai rice exporters still expect increasing rice prices from the second half of 2016 onwards. Chukiat admitted, however, that the prices of Thai farm products, especially rice, could be affected by drought this year, quoting a report released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives’ Department of Agriculture as saying that about 3 million tonnes of milled rice could be lost from drought during this year's off-season harvest. In 2015, Chukiat noted, India was the champion on rice exports, shipping overseas more than 11 million tonnes, followed by Thailand at nearly 10 million tonnes and Vietnam at 6.5 million tonnes. Chukiat projected that Thailand could become the world's top rice exporter in 2016, shipping 9–9.5 million tonnes of rice to the global market, followed by India at 8.5 million tonnes. (TNA)