Bolstered by the government’s stimulus measures, Thailand’s consumer spending is predicted to hit a 17-year high, reaching 103.04 billion THB (2.9 billion USD).

Thanavath Phonvichai, an adviser to the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting, revealed at the conference on “Consumer behaviour and spending during 2023 New Year festival” that it would be the first time that consumer spending would be exceeding 100 billion THB since 2007.

With the support of the government’s stimulus measures, such as “Shop Dee Mee Kuen” (Shop and Payback) and “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together) schemes during the first quarter of next year, the country’s economy is expected to grow by 0.1-1%, said Thanavath.

Adviser to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC)’s Council Saowanee Thairungroj said that the survey regarding consumer spending behaviour during the New Year festival, conducted between December 9-16 with a sample size of 1,345 participants across the country, showed that 69.8% of respondents are likely to spend money on travelling and party through the New Year period.

The survey also illustrated that consumers tend to buy more luxurious goods, with a basket of healthy products as the most popular New Year gift.

Some 48.3% of respondents thought that this New Year festival would be more bustling than the previous year, she said.

Meanwhile, Kasikorn Research Centre (KResearch) expected spending by Bangkokians during the New Year festival to be around 30.9 billion THB, up 10.5% year on year following recovery in economic activities and tourism in the post-COVID-19 era.

However, most people would set aside their budget only for the four-day-long New Year holidays (December 30, 2022, to January 2, 2023) due to uncertainty over rising product prices, KResearch said./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency