Bangkok Shutdown To Cause Billions Of Baht Losses To Thailand's Ailing Economy

BANGKOK, Jan 9 - Thailand's economy is to incur about 40 billion baht losses following the political turmoil in the country linked to the planned Bangkok shutdown action on Monday.

The figure is based on the losses of between 700 million and 1 billion per day due to the shutdown for two weeks (from Jan 13 until the general election on Feb 2), estimated Thanavath Phonvichai, Director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre at the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce.

Spending in Bangkok and nearby provinces would drop by 5-10 per cent a day from the day of the shutdown, while spending in other provinces could drop by 1-5 per cent due to weak consumer sentiments, he told reporters Thursday.

Thanavath said weak sentiments would result in reduced consumer spending by about 500 million baht per day while income from the tourism sector would drop by between 200 million to 500 million baht a day.

As a result, the Thailand economy could only grow by 3-4 per cent this year, slower than in the previous forecast of 4-5 per cent as Thailand's economy was now quite fragile and sensitive to the political situation, he said.

According to the poll by the UTCC from 2,242 respondents between Jan 2 and Jan 7, the Consumer Confidence Index slipped for the ninth straight month from 75 points in November to 73.4 points in December.

Confidence in future employment opportunities dipped from 68.2 points in November to 66.7 points last month, while confidence in future incomes also slid from 91.8 points to 90.3 points.

Wachira Kuntaweethep, the centre's assistant director, said consumers have stocked up more goods and most enterprises expect that their sales and profit would drop sharply due to the shutdown.

Enterprises said they would not lay off employees but their business expansion plans could be delayed as a result of the political turbulence, Wachira added.

BERNAMA