FILE PHOTO: People wearing face masks shop for street food in Chinatown amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Bangkok, Thailand, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai consumer confidence dropped to a record low in July, dented by the country's biggest COVID-19 outbreak to date, a sluggish vaccine rollout and a slowing economic recovery, a survey showed on Thursday.

 

The Southeast Asian country has struggled with a surge in infections fuelled by the Delta variant of the virus and this week extended stricter containment measures for a month, with lockdown areas expanded.

 

The restrictions are expected to reduce gross domestic product (GDP) by 2-3%, or 500 billion baht ($15 billion), university president Thanavath Phonvichai told a briefing.

 

The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce's consumer index fell to 40.9 in July from 43.1 in June amid concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak and political uncertainty, the university said.

 

"Consumers felt the economy was still bad," Thanavath said. "Confidence in August is expected to drop further, signalling a slow economy with no signs of recovery," he added.

 

The economy is now expected to shrink as much as 2% this year, rather than meet earlier predictions of 0% to 1% growth, Thanavath said, adding a deeper fall was expected if the outbreak dragged on.

 

Southeast Asia's second-largest economy shrank 6.1% last year, its deepest slump in over two decades, with tourism devastated by the pandemic.

 

So far, only 6.3% of Thailand's more than 66 million people have been fully vaccinated.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-08-05

 

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A little spike now when people are piling up, followed by a new low? 

Of course, confidence is low. Plenty of people simply have no money left. I check from time to time FB pages of people I know who work in the hospitality and entertainment industry.

During the first lockdown last year, they went along OK. They went back to their family in the provinces, and I could see pictures of them spending happy time with their kids, etc... They had some savings or the family had some savings, it was a bit like holiday.

 

Now It's very different. They couldn't make much savings after it re-opened, are usually broke, and the tone is more desperate, I.e. screenshots of their bank app showing an empty account.

 

 

6.3% of Thais are fully vaccinated. How many have had Sinovac? Singapore has now excluded anyone vaccinated with Sinovac from their inoculation figures due to its low effacy rate against Delta. 

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

hai consumer confidence dropped to a record low in July, dented by the country's biggest COVID-19 outbreak to date, a sluggish vaccine rollout and a slowing economic recovery, a survey showed on Thursday.

But less than 2% unemployment, I can't understand it?

2 hours ago, owenm said:

6.3% of Thais are fully vaccinated. How many have had Sinovac? Singapore has now excluded anyone vaccinated with Sinovac from their inoculation figures due to its low effacy rate against Delta. 

The reason that Sinovac excluded in Singapore's national vaccination numbers is due to the vaccine not under the MOH vaccination program and not due to its low efficacy. The Health Science Authority is currently reviewing data from Sinovac which they submitted on July 5 and will complete evaluation of the additional data in 4-6 weeks and will made a regulatory decision.  

Hello! Huh? Of course consumer confidence is down. When you bear witness to a once vibrant economy, torn asunder partially by Covid, but mostly by imbeciles who are in completely over their heads, and have no idea how to fight this thing, or deal with tourism, the economy will tumble.

 

Nothing will be normal next year, or the year after. Thailand is now heading towards an economic catastrophe that will make 1997 look mild. And it will last a half decade or longer. There is a high chance of a major depression here, and nobody knows how high unemployment is, if you take into account the cash economy. 40%? More? And the goons who are saying the economy will only grow by 1% this year are lost in space. Contract by 8% maybe. And then you have the "exports are way up" crowd chiming in. Alot of fake news out there, no doubt alot of it is administration supported subterfuge, disinformation, and just plain lies. 

 

And when you consider that tourism made up a full 20% of the economy, or 110,000,000,000,000 baht that is alot of cash that is gone, baby gone, and not returning anytime soon. I do not think it will ever return. I predict after 5 years, the tourism industry will be 15% of what it was before, or 5 million arrivals, at most. Too much sabotage. Too much punishment. Too much destruction. Too little support. Too long a shutdown. 

Thai bhat is dropping 23.52 to the nz  ????