BANGKOK, 15 July 2011 – The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) has moved up for the second consecutive month in June to 81.7 points from 80.4 points in May, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting (CEBF) of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
According to CEBF Director Dr Thanawat Polvichai, the confidence indexes for the country’s overall economy, employment opportunities and future income rose simultaneously for the first time in five months.
The increase is attributed to people’s optimism about the economic stimulus package to be adopted by the new government after the 3 July general election and decreasing retail oil prices in the country for the time being.
The CEBF also reported that after the election, the CCI had skyrocketed to 83.8 points, which was the highest figure in six years. The hike was attributed to the confidence people have toward the domestic political stability.
As a result, the CEBF expected that the people’s consumption would be increasing gradually in the third quarter of this year and would show significant positive movement in the last quarter.
The Thai economy is hence anticipated to grow at 4.4% and possibly reaches 4.5-5% this year thanks to many supporting factors, such as the growth of the country’s export and tourism section, plus loan release expansion of financial institutes.
