Thai consumer confidence rebound- Consumer confidence in Thailand is on the rebound, climbing from 81 index points in March to 86 at the end of June, according to a Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Survey.
Conducted in 28 markets in June, the survey also revealed that global consumer confidence had increased from 77 points in March to 82 at the end of the second quarter. Global confidence was spurred by renewed consumer optimism and stock-market gains in BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and key Asian countries. “In the previous Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence survey conducted in March 2009, we were seeing the first signs that as far as the world’s consumers were concerned, the recession had bottomed out.
Three months later, they’re starting to embrace the idea of recovery – which is a major turning point,” Aaron Cross, managing director of Nielsen Thailand, said in a statement. “Thai consumers also share this sentiment, with 84 per cent thinking their economy was in recession – a positive reduction of seven points from a high of 91 per cent when the survey ran in March. Twenty-eight per cent of Thai consumers now think the recession will be over within a year, up from 24 per cent who thought so three months ago,” said Cross.
Thai consumers have also become more optimistic about local job prospects, with 27 per cent perceiving them to be “good” or “excellent”, compared with 15 per cent three months ago. After covering essential living expenses, putting money into savings continues to be the main priority for more than half of Thai consumers (53 per cent). Vacations (43 per cent) and retirement funds (27 per cent) were the next most popular spending options. The economy continues to be the major concern for Thai consumers (49 per cent) in the next six months, followed by job security (26 per cent), debt (20 per cent) and increasing fuel prices (19 per cent).
