Thai Consumer Confidence Fell Sharply

[george]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

BANGKOK: -- Thai consumer confidence fell sharply by fifteen points from 107 to 92 over the last six months, according to a survey by the Nielsen Company.

Thai consumers were pessimistic over job local prospects and nearly half of them didn't seem confident about the state of their finances for the year ahead, resulting in them being ranked first in the world in terms of "people planning to save any left over cash after paying for essential living expenses" according to the twiceyearly Global Consumer Confidence Study issued by The Nielsen Company.

The survey came amid reported drops in sales of consumer goods and consumer electrical appliances. Saha Group, Thailand's largest consumer goods manufacturer, also expects a 5 per cent contraction in its annual sale revenue this year - the first negative growth in its 60-year history.

-- The Nation 2007-06-12

[lazeeboy]

travelers are down in the first 6 months of this year so everyone should tighten there belts as its going to get worse ,this bring on thefts because people cant pay there bill etc ,more bad news for thailand

[soundman]

travelers are down in the first 6 months of this year so everyone should tighten there belts as its going to get worse ,this bring on thefts because people cant pay there bill etc ,more bad news for thailand

Yeah - the telephone lines got knicked again yesterday. Seventh time this year.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[highdiver]

travelers are down in the first 6 months of this year so everyone should tighten there belts as its going to get worse ,this bring on thefts because people cant pay there bill etc ,more bad news for thailand

Yeah - the telephone lines got knicked again yesterday. Seventh time this year.

Cheers,

Soundman.

International arrivals up

BANGKOK: -- International visitor arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the four months of the year totalled 3,413,197, an increase of 2.61 per cent year on year.

This includes only those who arrived in Bangkok as a first point of entry and not those who flew directly to other points in Thailand or who entered the country at border checkpoints. About 70 per cent of visitors usually make Bangkok their first point of entry.

Arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport from major markets in the period included East Asia (1,525,989), Europe (1,114,770), the Americas (267,965), Oceania (161,097), South Asia (187,526), the Middle East (124,863) and Africa (30,987).

-- The Nation 2007-06-11

[Francis Maube]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

This is ludicrous, with the exception of the rich, Thais save nothing. Partly because they have very little to save and also because the concept of tomorrow is just not there.

This is reminiscent of the mid '90's when the media were hyping up the Asian model for such a great economic success. The mediocre economic magazines were plastering their front page with the benefits of high saving, a lot of crap were printed. Then in the summer of 1997, everyone know what happen, and there were certainly no saving either individuals or corporate to bail out the country.

Too bad we live in an era of mediocre media being TV, magazine or newspapers.

Edited June 13, 2007 by Francis Maube

[soundman]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

This is ludicrous, with the exception of the rich, Thais save nothing. Partly because they have very little to save and also because the concept of tomorrow is just not there.

This is reminiscent of the mid '90's when the media were hyping up the Asian model for such a great economic success. The mediocre economic magazines were plastering their front page with the benefits of high saving, a lot of crap were printed. Then in the summer of 1997, everyone know what happen, and there were certainly no saving either individuals or corporate to bail out the country.

Too bad we live in an era of mediocre media being TV, magazine or newspapers.

I would have to agree with this comment. From personal observations IMO most Thai's in the lower half of the socio-economic spectrum have almost zero will and or ability to save money. The closest they ever get to saving money is taking a motgage out on a property.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[LaoPo]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

BANGKOK: -- Thai consumer confidence fell sharply by fifteen points from 107 to 92 over the last six months, according to a survey by the Nielsen Company.

Thai consumers were pessimistic over job local prospects and nearly half of them didn't seem confident about the state of their finances for the year ahead, resulting in them being ranked first in the world in terms of "people planning to save any left over cash after paying for essential living expenses" according to the twiceyearly Global Consumer Confidence Study issued by The Nielsen Company.

The survey came amid reported drops in sales of consumer goods and consumer electrical appliances. Saha Group, Thailand's largest consumer goods manufacturer, also expects a 5 per cent contraction in its annual sale revenue this year - the first negative growth in its 60-year history.

-- The Nation 2007-06-12

The title 'Thailand...world's top saver' is quite misleading I think...

'Planning to save any left over cash' is something else than real saving.

LaoPo

[Kimera]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

This is ludicrous, with the exception of the rich, Thais save nothing. Partly because they have very little to save and also because the concept of tomorrow is just not there.

This is reminiscent of the mid '90's when the media were hyping up the Asian model for such a great economic success. The mediocre economic magazines were plastering their front page with the benefits of high saving, a lot of crap were printed. Then in the summer of 1997, everyone know what happen, and there were certainly no saving either individuals or corporate to bail out the country.

Too bad we live in an era of mediocre media being TV, magazine or newspapers.

I would have to disagree that the Thai concept of tomorrow is not there, else why in the provinces do the parents try to insure what they have passes to the children, in most cases before they die ! The concept of inprovement is definately there!

[hhfarang]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

This is ludicrous, with the exception of the rich, Thais save nothing. Partly because they have very little to save and also because the concept of tomorrow is just not there.

This is reminiscent of the mid '90's when the media were hyping up the Asian model for such a great economic success. The mediocre economic magazines were plastering their front page with the benefits of high saving, a lot of crap were printed. Then in the summer of 1997, everyone know what happen, and there were certainly no saving either individuals or corporate to bail out the country.

Too bad we live in an era of mediocre media being TV, magazine or newspapers.

I would have to disagree that the Thai concept of tomorrow is not there, else why in the provinces do the parents try to insure what they have passes to the children, in most cases before they die ! The concept of inprovement is definately there!

I don't know what provinces you're talking about but in Issan where my wife comes from none of the parents have anything to save or pass to the children. In fact, they depend on their children to support and take care of them. I have supported my wife's parents for years ever since we married because they have nothing, and the entire village seems to be in the same situation.

[steveromagnino]

Thai consumers continue as the world's top saver

This is ludicrous, with the exception of the rich, Thais save nothing. Partly because they have very little to save and also because the concept of tomorrow is just not there.

This is reminiscent of the mid '90's when the media were hyping up the Asian model for such a great economic success. The mediocre economic magazines were plastering their front page with the benefits of high saving, a lot of crap were printed. Then in the summer of 1997, everyone know what happen, and there were certainly no saving either individuals or corporate to bail out the country.

Too bad we live in an era of mediocre media being TV, magazine or newspapers.

Given the wealth distribution, it matters almost nought economically that the rural poor save nothing and cannot budget, as they don't have any money. The few that have some money usually get that way by saving; hel_l in one generation my mother's destitute parents and their siblings have created an entire family of kids where almost every kid is a millionaire, and the parents while illerate aren't exactly poor either. So to say ALL POOR don't know how to plan/budget isn't so accurate, certainly most don't, so it is fairly easy for someone motivated and willing to toil to get ahead as a result.

Anyway, within Thailand, most of the money is within the hands of a few, who for the most part do actually save. If we add in companies to the mix, and lending policies of banks (which for a while post 97 had a fairly large spread between lending and saving rates, but pretty much weren't keen to lend at all) then we could see how Thailand might have an ok savings rate.

The survey as noted is a question regarding intention; one would have to ask the banks and do a calculation to confirm whether Thai people top the Japanese as savers (which I doubt). In fact with credit card changes and impact of personal loans and the Taksin style of giving money freely, I am totally unsure which way it would work out, that Thailand is a land of savers or spenders or somewhere in the middle.

As for mediocre economic magazines, it isn't only the mediocre; the Economist no less was rather enamoured at certain points (mostly after he'd been kicked out) with the spend like crazy on pointless stuff but make the poor like you policy of Herr Taksin. And I wouldn't call them mediocre despite some of their extremely naive views on anything outside USA/Europe/Japan/China/India. Charlemagne seems 'very nice' though :-)

I think someone calculated that all the growth combined with the loss in 97 ended up netting out to doing worse than some fairly average economies; so much for the hype. Actually, you could apply that to:

- dot com

- telco bubble

- Japan Inc

lots of bubbles and each is heralded as 'a new way of doing things' blah blah blah.

[cclub75]

The title 'Thailand...world's top saver' is quite misleading I think...

'Planning to save any left over cash' is something else than real saving.

LaoPo

Yes. Or we could say "are willing to" or "would like to".

On the other hand, we can understand that Thaksin for instance... "is saving" and "has been saving" A lot.