BANGKOK, 20 February 2014 The Federation of Thai Industries said the Industries Sentiment Index would be affected if political situations remain unresolved.
Mr. Payungsak Chatsutthiphon, President of Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) spoke of the recent results of a survey that showed the Thai ISI in January 2014 had plunged to 86.9 from 88.3 in December of last year. This is the lowest point in 55 months for the ISI since June 2009, which factors total orders, total production volume, operational costs and performances.
Entrepreneurs showed concerns over the political situation, with anti-government protesters’ surrounding of many business districts and government buildings in Bangkok, as well as the invocation of the Emergency Decree, make it unable to know when the situations will ease up.
There are risk factors that make the entrepreneurs have to try to adjust their operation plans and monitor the situation closely. The situations that remain unresolved slow down the consumption as can be seen in a index of orders and domestic sales that dropped and affected liquidity in operations, especially SMEs. Export entrepreneurs are concerned that importers of Thai products will turn to importing products from other countries.
However, SME entrepreneurs urge the government and people who are against it to urgently discuss solutions to the country’s problems.
