Thai consumers grow cautious as corruption tops national concerns

Ipsos, a global leader in market research and consumer opinion polling, has conducted research under the topic “What Worries Thailand?” continuously from 2022 to 2026.

The top five issues worrying Thais most remain political and financial corruption, together with livelihood concerns.

In addition to Thailand, the research was also carried out in 31 countries worldwide, covering 24,032 respondents aged 16-74.

For Thailand, What Worries Thailand? H1 2026 surveyed 500 respondents aged 16-74.

It found that several dimensions had worsened, including the economic situation, confidence in spending, concerns about job loss, and the six-month outlook, with the share of people who believed their own financial position would improve trending lower.

Thais worry about political corruption, diverging from the global trend

Pimtai Suwannasuk, senior client officer at Ipsos in Thailand, said that in the first half of the year, the issue Thais were most concerned about was political and financial corruption, at 49%.

This was followed by livelihood issues, poverty and social inequality, at 41%, military conflict between nations at 27%, inflation at 27%, and crime and violence at 24%.

These concerns among Thais contrasted with the global picture, where 33% of respondents were most worried about inflation, followed by crime and violence.

Political and financial corruption ranked fifth globally, at 26%.

“Thais rank politics and corruption as their No. 1 concern because they believe the country should be able to develop further if these issues were not involved. Meanwhile, bread-and-butter issues, poverty and inequality rose quite sharply from the start of the year to the end of April. This differs from the global picture, where inflation is the No. 1 concern and corruption ranks fifth. For example, Europe and Scandinavia are more worried about inflation and crime.”

The research also asked respondents whether things in the country were heading in the right direction or going the wrong way.

Most Thais, 56%, believed the country was heading in the wrong direction because the problems they were facing were bread-and-butter issues, energy prices, oil prices and expensive electricity bills.

“At the end of 2025, Thais closed the year with hope because parliament had been dissolved for a new election. Everyone had a positive view. But the year opened with a new government and, as time passed, there was nothing tangible or better than before. This affected confidence, with views that the country was heading in the wrong direction rising sharply, especially in March and April, because no policies had come out. Thais were thinking about livelihood issues, but the government still had not been able to do enough.”

The economy approaches a crisis point as the wealthy cut back most

These factors also affected views of the current situation, with 71% of Thais saying the Thai economy was in poor condition, an increase of 17 percentage points within one month.

“In April, 71% of Thais saw the economy as fairly poor. This was the highest figure, or an all-time high, in four years. People thought the economy was close to a crisis because the fighting involving Iran had added pressure, affecting energy prices. This led many people to tighten their belts more and to consider whether commuting to work at the office was worthwhile. It is a concern for both employers and employees, and they may consider working from home again.”

Another worrying sign when the economy deteriorated was the finding that households with high incomes of THB180,000 per month were cutting costs the most and not spending.

Under normal circumstances, middle-income and low-income earners would be the ones to economise in such a situation.

As a result, overall, 62% of Thais were reluctant to buy big-ticket items such as houses or cars, while 51% felt uncomfortable buying household goods and luxury products.

The survey found 49% would buy products only when they were discounted and would buy own-brand products, while 47% took longer to decide and were becoming more careful.

“Normally, when the economy is poor, only the middle-to-lower income groups are seen to be affected. But now high-income households are also beginning to find it hard to bear, which is the first time this has been seen in the research. The overall picture shows quite a struggle.”

Thai confidence index posts world’s steepest fall

In addition, the Ipsos Global Consumer Confidence Index for April 2026 found Thailand’s overall consumer confidence, or National Index, at 45.5 points, down 10.9 points.

This was the largest fall in the world over the previous month and outpaced other Asia-Pacific markets such as Malaysia, down 6.1 points, South Korea, down 5.1 points, Japan, down 4.7 points, and Australia, down 4.6 points.

“Among the 31 countries surveyed, consumer confidence in Asia-Pacific fell sharply, while the fall in Thai confidence was also the most severe, second only to the COVID-19 outbreak period.”

Other confidence indices also fell across all dimensions.

The Expectations Index stood at 49.7 points, down by the most at 14.3 points; the Investment Confidence Index was 44.8 points, down 13.4 points; the Current Economic Conditions Index was 43 points, down 12.4 points; the Overall Index was 45.5 points, down 11.7 points; and the Employment Confidence Index was 48.9 points, down 6.8 points.

“At the beginning of the year, Thailand had a new government. Everyone felt hopeful that there would be something new. But after the three-month honeymoon period ended, there was still no clear policy. During Songkran, people faced a higher cost of living and higher electricity bills. From expecting something better, confidence fell because expectations of the new government had been high.”

Personal finances expected to worsen in the second half

In addition, regarding views on their own financial position in the second half of 2026, 36% of Thais believed their financial position would improve.

However, this was lower than in March, when 50% expected their personal finances to improve.

The survey also found that 49% of Thais were concerned about job security.

Military conflicts between nations, especially fighting in the Middle East, which ranked among Thais’ top three concerns, led 33% of respondents to expect tensions between the US and Iran to drag on until the end of the year.

Another 25% believed the situation would last longer, affecting concerns over energy prices and the cost of living, which were likely to increase over the long term.