People’s purchasing power is improving, says Saha Group Honorary Chairman

[webfact]

People’s purchasing power is improving, says Saha Group Honorary Chairman



BANGKOK: -- Purchasing power of the people is now gradually improving following increasing government spendings on infrastructure projects and speedy disbursement of budgets by state agencies.

This was voiced by the Saha Group honorary chairman Mr Boonsithi Chokwatana yesterday.

The chairman of Saha Group, the country’s largest manufacturer of consumers products expressed confidence that the people’s spending power would continue to gradually improve in the second half of the year, after food sales have shown a clear increase.

He attributed improving purchasing power to the government’s speedy disbursement of budgets and investment in infrastructure projects which helped to create more liquidity in the market.

Mr Boonsithi said that the state should continually invest in infrastructure projects and should not rely solely on investments from the private sector.

The businessman expressed that the government is moving in the right direction by implementing measures to help stimulate the economy, adding that his group is ready to comply with the government’s policy by investing in the special economic zone at the Mae Sot border.

Moreover, its subsidiary Saha Pathanabibul will organise the ‘Saha Group Fair’, aiming to help stimulate domestic spending through the sales of low price products from June 30-July 3, 2016.

The company has also been promoting the use of digital technology by using the QR code to directly link consumers with the company’s website to make online purchases and e-payments to cater to today’s increasing consumers’ demands to shop online, which in turn, has raised the value of online trading to as high as 80 billion baht per year, he said.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/166300


-- Thai PBS 2016-06-07

[thai3]

Why is my mrs always complaining about the price increases on veg then at the markets, if you can find what you want that is. Durrian yesterday was 150 baht and fruit all gone up a lot from last year.

Edited June 7, 2016 by thai3

[chainarong]

Going on what was stated a few days back from the Department for Hope or whatever , suggested that Thai's would be earning 40 Thousand Baht a month in 16 years time ,allowing for the inflation factor that would be the equivalent of around 3 Baht at todays price , so all this purchasing power jargon is another appeasing brown nose effort at another failure of the rainy seasons sales at the Junta supermarket, after all, governments of all persuasion have never increased anything in the private sector , and whilst wages in the most part have stayed at 1995 rates and unless something outstanding happens in the mean time, Thailand's people wont see much improvement in the long term .......................................

[Hawk]

Most Thais still buy on credit as they love spending money that they don't have.

[Toknarok]

-- On the other hand the Nikkei Review today stated almost the opposite. The Chairman of Saha Group is reported as saying that the Thai Government must increase public spending in order to stimulate growth. Who to believe?.....See http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Chair-of-Thai-consumer-giant-Saha-calls-for-more-government-spending

[shirtless]

So in the photo there are only 2 customers , yep business owners are running to get wheel barrows to do their banking. this is utter rubbish.

[sgtsabai]

I believe he should have a little sit down with my wife. Her opinion is 180 degrees from his and I'd wager she knows a hell of a lot more about real purchasing power than he does. He lives in a different world.

[Caspersfriend]

If you laid all the economists in the world end to end, they still wouldn't reach a valid conclusion.

[Winniedapu]

Indirect suggestion. Again.

No verifiable numbers I suppose? Didn't think so...

W

[Mosha]

Why is my mrs always complaining about the price increases on veg then at the markets, if you can find what you want that is. Durrian yesterday was 150 baht and fruit all gone up a lot from last year.

Agreed, food inflation is ridiculous. Pork's up massively on last year.

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

[bangrak]

IMO, just free advertising space in the media for the 'Saha Group Fair', clever from Mr Boonsithi, ...not so clever what he said though, which seems highly controversial, and quite stupid from the media to publish such rubbish babble, ...or were they 'invited' to propagate the (fake) 'good news'?

[Krataiboy]

Delusional nonsense. How much can spending power have increased when a recent survey showed nearly 90 per cent of Thai families "heavily" in debt?

[retarius]

I haven't seen any figures about car purchases but I don;t see many red plates cars on the road. And those I do see are usually luxury brands like BMW and Merc. I am wondering whether disposable income has not gone down….and we still have many, many used car lots selling repos. I am skeptical.

[ChrisY1]

"increasing government spending on infrastructure"?..........what infrastructure?.....and why would that make people spend more.......oh.."that's a nice new road...I'll spend some money"?!!

Another load of frog sh*t from the Saha Group of dreams............most Thai working class people are broke!

[billd766]

Why is my mrs always complaining about the price increases on veg then at the markets, if you can find what you want that is. Durrian yesterday was 150 baht and fruit all gone up a lot from last year.

It might be that the drought and the lack of water for fruit and vegetables could have a lot to do with it.

[billd766]

Most Thais still buy on credit as they love spending money that they don't have.

Are you sure?

Not that many rural Thais (and there are a lot of them) have credit cards. Neither do most local shops and markets take credit/debit cards anyway.

[billd766]

Why is my mrs always complaining about the price increases on veg then at the markets, if you can find what you want that is. Durrian yesterday was 150 baht and fruit all gone up a lot from last year.

Agreed, food inflation is ridiculous. Pork's up massively on last year.

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

Last week my wife ordered me a whole leg of pork, about 9 1/2 kg, bone in and skin on from the local market. It cost 1,235 baht or about 130 baht per kg delivered to the house 2 days later.

My wife skinned and de-boned it and is in brine in the fridge for a week as I turn it into ham.

I may take one piece, smother it with honey and mustard and bake it.

Edited June 8, 2016 by billd766

[Scotwight]

Why is my mrs always complaining about the price increases on veg then at the markets, if you can find what you want that is. Durrian yesterday was 150 baht and fruit all gone up a lot from last year.

It's the law of supply and demand that the price of durian in Thailand is now selling at a higher price since there is an expected big shortfall in the production of the tropical fruit this year.

Up to 75 percent of a total volume of durian from the three provinces is destined for exports to China. Arbsuwan said some Chinese traders have already visited the durian plantations in the three provinces and have "contracted" farmers to buy the "king of fruits.

Chantaburi, Rayong and Trat provinces, can easily secure a price of not less than 2.1 U.S. dollars per kilogram this year, compared to an average of 1.8 U.S. dollars a kilo last year, Saiyud Arbsuwan, Trat provincial agricultural chief, said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=280368

Thailand is the world's largest durian exporter, with roughly 90 percent of the international market share, followed way behind by Malaysia and Indonesia

Edited June 8, 2016 by Scotwight