Thailand’s Consumer Confidence Index rebounds to pre-Covid level
December saw the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) rise into the confidence zone for the first time since before the Covid-19 outbreak, the Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) reported on Sunday.
The CCI rose to 50.4 last month from 49.9 points in November, entering the confidence zone (50-100 points) for the first time in 43 months since May 2019.
Driving the improvement were overall economic recovery, rising domestic consumption, and the influx of foreign tourists at year-end, which prompted businesses to expand and hire more staff.
The CCI survey uses data from 6,600 samples in seven occupations across Thailand.
The TPSO also reported that Thailand’s Construction Materials Price Index (CMPI) jumped 5.7% in 2022 and is expected to remain around the same level this year.
The price of construction materials rose on the soaring cost of fuel and steel due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the TPSO said. Other factors driving up the index were manufacturers reducing output, rising minimum wages, increasing electricity costs, the weakening baht, and floods in the second half of the year, said TPSO director Poonpong Naiyanapakorn.
December’s index dropped 0.2% from the previous month, reflecting the falling steel price and promotions for sanitaryware, but it was still 3.6% higher than a year earlier.
The TPSO forecast the CMPI this year will be in the same range as 2022, as Thailand’s recovering economy and public and private investment projects trigger high demand for steel and fuel. Also driving up manufacturing costs will be the higher electricity costs and continual rises in the minimum wage and interest rate.
Factors that could dampen the CMPI in 2023 are the threat of another Covid-19 situation in China and the threat of another lockdown, and the end of government measures to boost the real estate sector that will result in declining property sales, the TPSO said.
