Forecast for New Year spending lowest in 12 years
The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC)’s Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting (CEBF) expects people to spend 85.8 billion baht during the New Year break, 6.2 per cent less than last year and the lowest in 12 years.
The expected spending was split as follows:
• Domestic travel: 47.91 billion baht
• International travel: 1.73 billion baht
• Celebrations: 10.03 billion baht
• Shopping: 15.79 billion baht
• Making merit: 7.87 billion baht
The centre also said that the population wants the government to do the following:
• Manage the country transparently
• Combat corruption
• Decentralise administration so local governments can work efficiently
• Launch more economic stimulus schemes like Khon La Khrueng (Let’s Go Halves) and Chim Shop Chai (Eat, Shop, Spend)
• Solve the Covid-19 problem.
Meanwhile, the centre revealed that the most bought New Year presents were gift baskets, food and supplement drinks.
The average spending on local travel came in at just under 5,500 baht per person and international travel at slightly more than 21,000 during the New Year break.
A survey conducted by CEBF showed that 71.2 per cent of Thais expect the state of the economy to affect their spending, while 68.3 per cent said it was also Covid-19 and 43.2 per cent said it was debt.
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The top three things people want the government to do are take care of the cost of living, solve the Covid-19 situation and address the household debt problem.
The study also found that 28.4 per cent of people believe the economy will worsen next year, 26.5 per cent believe it will remain unchanged, 25.4 per cent expect it to worsen only slightly, while 0.1 per cent were positive. Most people chose the “do not know” option, while some thought the economy will grow by 2.51-3 per cent.
Most people also want the government to extend economic stimulus measures like the Khon La Khrueng scheme (Let’s Go Halves), Shop Dee Mee Kuen (Shop and Payback), and Rao Tiew Duay Kan (We Travel Together).
The survey showed that 72.7 per cent of people are worried about Omicron, while 27.3 per cent are not worried.
However, the Omicron situation has affected the decision to travel during the New Year break for 59.6 per cent of the respondents.