Veg fests to boost Q4 growth

The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce poll showed that this year’s vegetarian festival will play a key role in driving economic growth in the last quarter.

“The economy in the fourth quarter could grow 4-5 per cent, as the country has a new government, the budget for the next fiscal year has been passed, and the vegetarian festival will happen twice, stimulating greater spending,” said Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the university’s Economic and Business Forecasting Centre.

This year marks a unique occasion, which comes once in 182 years, when the ninth month in the Chinese calendar occurs twice. 

The first festival period will be from September 24 to October 2, and the second will be from October 24 to November 1.

The poll showed that more people intend to join this year’s Gin Je festivities, and the price of foods are expected to increase by 5-10 per cent.

Businesses that will benefit from the festival are the food industry and restaurants.

Thanavath said the money circulating in merchandising would be around Bt42 billion to Bt45 billion. This will spur 4-5 per cent growth in the early stage of recovery in the fourth quarter.

The UTCC predicts the Thai economy will this year expand by 2 per cent annually.

The survey showed that spending in the first vegetarian festival will increase by 2.1 per cent year on year to Bt41.01 billion because people are still worried about their spending and higher goods prices. Spending during the second festival will be worth about Bt10.25 billion.

Based on the survey, each person at the festival will spend on average Bt8,943 over the nine days, broken down as travel expense to make merit Bt3,101; making merit Bt2,136; spending on food about Bt721 a day.

In a survey conducted from September 8-13, 31.2 per cent of the 1,188 respondents said they would be vegetarians this year, up from 29.7 per cent last year.

The major reason for the higher outlay this year is merit making.