BANGKOK, Jan 20 – Circulation of around Bt31 billion was estimated for withdrawal during the Chinese New Year festival, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).
Comparatively close to that of the same period last year, such an amount was part of BoT’s forecast on total money withdrawals of Bt107 billion to be requested by commercial banks during the period of two weeks before the New Year.
As of Jan 16, the BoT has supplied around Bt490 billion. All types of banknotes are sufficiently in reserve for commercial banks, it stated.
Meanwhile, the latest Suan Dusit Poll revealed that during this period of Chinese New Year, 76 percent of Thai-Chinese will follow the tradition of paying respect and gratitude to ancestors and spirits, while 56 percent said they would give less importance to the tradition due to social and economic changes.
Respondents spoke of different reasons on how they benefited from spirit offerings during the Chinese New Year. Almost forty percent said they were happy to pay respects to ancestors, whereas 19 percent viewed it as a means to garner good luck, fortune and safety. Twenty-seven percent viewed it as an occasion for family gathering, and 12 percent said it was when they received gift money in red envelopes.
When asked what they would like to say to other Thai-Chinese, 47 percent of those surveyed said they wanted all Thais with Chinese origin to keep the Chinese New Year spirit offerings tradition alive.
Twenty percent asked for them to love Thai soil and 17 percent for Thais of all ethnicities to love each other and unite.
The survey was conducted among 1,936 Thais-Chinese citizens in Bangkok and Chinese communities nationwide from Jan 16-20.
