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SME business confidence up again in Q1
Small and medium-sized enterprises’ business confidence continued rising from late last year to early this year on the government’s economic stimulus, according to TMB Analytics.
Benjarong Suwankiri, first vice president and team head of TMB Analytics at TMB Bank, said yesterday that the TMB-SME Sentiment Index rose for the second quarter in a row for the first time in nearly four years to 42.1 in the first quarter of this year.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the figure was 40.5 and, in the third quarter, bottomed out at 34.2. Scores below 50 indicate low confidence.
Benjarong cited the government’s additional batch of economic stimulus measures for the short and long terms from late in the third quarter of last year to this past March.
The stimulus measures could help boost purchasing power and money circulation in the economic system.
Business owners gained confidence in their income improving as a result of the government’s support for the economy.
Such measures extend from stimulus of consumption during festivals and money injections into local areas to clarity and continuity of measures that enhance SMEs’ competitiveness and liquidity.
TMB Analytics expects risks to the economy could hurt business operators’ confidence. Such risks include drought and low crop prices.
This quarter, Thailand is short of economic support to continue its recovery and there may be a need for the government to drive the economic recovery late this year, it says.
MPC seen holding key rate again
The Bank of Thailand is expected tomorrow to leave the policy interest rate where it has been since April of last year, letting the government take the lead in helping the lacklustre domestic economy, a Reuters poll showed.
In the poll, 20 of 21 analysts forecast the one-day repurchase rate staying at 1.50 per cent when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets.
One predicts a 25-basis-point cut to 1.25 per cent, citing a weaker economic outlook. That would match a record low seen during the global financial crisis.
Paiboon Kittisrikangwan, deputy central bank governor, said last month there was no need for a rate cut for now, as gross domestic product should grow by 3.1 per cent this year as forecast.
Growth last year was 2.8 per cent.
Consumer prices in April unexpectedly picked up for the first time in 16 months, reducing pressure on policymakers to ease monetary policy further.
At its last meeting on March 23, the MPC voted unanimously to hold the rate at 1.50 per cent, saying it already supported the economy and monetary policy space should be preserved. – Reuters
