Public spending during the nine-day vegetarian festival which will start on Friday is estimated at 43.9 billion baht, representing an increase of 4.2 percent compared to last year’s – the highest expansion in three years, according to the findings of the Economic and Business Forecast Centre of the Thai Chamber of Commerce University.
The centre’s director, Mr Thanawat Pholvichai said that the findings stemmed from a public opinion survey conducted by the centre during September 19-27. Altogether 1,206 samples were polled.
Average spending per household this year is estimated at 9,700 baht compared to last year’s 9669 baht. This shows that consumers are still cautious about their spending, said Thanawat.
46.5 percent of the respondents said food prices during the vegetarian festival are higher than normal and most of the consumers said they would cook their own vegetarian food while others said they would buy ready-made or instant food.
Shopping during the festival is expected to be more active this year as more people have turned to vegetarian food during the festival and most will buy food from convenience stores, said Thanawat, adding that it was discovered online shopping of vegetarian food has also picked up.
Of all the respondents polled, 35.5 percent of them said they would observe the vegetarian festival with the majority of the vegetarians being Thais of Chinese descent.
