CEOs have faith in economy: survey
MOST THAI business leaders are confident in consumers’ purchasing power and are also buoyant about other economic conditions, with most eyeing an improved business performance this year compared to 2015, according to the Krungthep Turakij 100 CEOs Survey.
The survey was a collaboration between Krungthep Turakij, the country’s leading daily business newspaper, and Mirum (Thailand), a digital arm under British media giant WPP Group.
It tapped the thoughts of top Thai executives from leading business sectors about their investments, business-performance projections and management.
The study found that majority of respondents, or 62.96 per cent, predicted that their turnover this year would be better than last year while 9.88 per cent said their turnover would decrease.
Almost 50 per cent of CEOs believed that their net profit would increase from last year while 39.24 per cent said they would see no growth and 11.39 per cent admitted that their bet profit would be in negative territory.
Fifty per cent of respondents revealed that their revenue grew in the first half of the year while 29.76 per cent said there was no growth and 20.24 per cent presided |over a decline in turnover.
The key factors that affected on the performances of business were consumer purchasing power (79.52 per cent), public sentiment on the general economy (77.11 per cent), the global economic situation (60.24 per cent) and government stimulus policies (57.83 per cent).
Asking about to predict national economic expansion, 44.05 per cent predicted this year’s gross domestic products (GDP) would rise 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent while 29.76 per cent believed that GDP growth would exceed 3 per cent but only 15.48 per cent estimated that the growth would be between 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent.
For the forecast on the Thai capital market, 46.91 per cent of CEOs believed that by end of this year the SET Index would be between 1,500 to 1,600 points while 25.93 per cent estimated that the index would land between 1,400 to 1,500 points.
When it came to the topic of investments this year, 57.69 per cent of the participants revealed that they had maintained their investment value at the same level as last year while 32.05 per cent said that they had increased their investment spending.
Another 10.26 per cent confessed that they cut their investment budget.
Among those CEOs expanding their business, 44.44 per cent explained that their new investment aimed to increase their business competency while 14.81 per cent believed that they were in an emerging industry and 11.11 per cent said it was needed to accommodate their business growth after the Asean Economic Community had been put in place.
However, 14.81 per cent of CEOs put their new investments on hold, blaming the national economic slowdown as the key reason for that while 3.7 per cent acknowledged that their business was in recession and 2.47 per cent admitted that they were suffering liquidity issues and having trouble sourcing funds.
