Tourism revival boosts Thailand's industries sentiment index

Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) president Kriengkrai Thiennukul and FTI executive committee member Pipope Chokvathana said that the TISI in November had increased slightly over the previous month to 93.5 points, thanks to the growing number of foreign tourists.

Since the country’s economic activity is already back on track, consumption and expenditure in the country have flourished.

“Meanwhile, the construction sector was likely to bounce back as the demand for construction products and building materials used for household repairs has recently been on the rise after the improvement in the flood situation,” the FTI said.

Also, exporters have benefited from the plunging freight rates, it added.

The FTI expects the TISI index to reach 97.0 points in the next three months, lower than the previous forecast of 98.8 points due to concerns among entrepreneurs about rising production costs, especially the energy price that still remains high, and inflation that has lowered the country’s purchasing power.

It also pointed out that 70% of entrepreneurs were worried about the global economy, citing its survey conducted on 1,315 entrepreneurs from 45 types of industrial sectors in November this year.

Meanwhile, 43.5% of entrepreneurs were concerned about the domestic political situation, while 43.3% had issues with loan interest rates,” the FTI said.

It said that some businesspeople had suggested the government should control production costs, for example, maintaining the electricity cost per unit to be no more than 4.72 baht or encouraging business owners to invest in renewable energy in manufacturing so as to reduce electricity costs.

“Businesspeople have also advised the government to implement policies supporting the country’s soft power in a bid to attract foreign tourists to Thailand,” the FTI added.

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