7 Feb 2020
Thai Economy
A recent survey conducted by KResearch shows that a majority of the respondents or 66 percent of them were worried about the novel coronavirus outbreak with the epicentre in China, which has spread to other countries, including Thailand. Thais have hence paid more attention to preventive measures and adjusted some aspects of their lifestyle while it remains uncertain when the deadly disease will be contained....Read more
31 Jan 2020
New risks to the Thai economy have been seen. These include the novel coronavirus outbreak, which will likely hurt tourism receipts and a likelihood that the enforcement of the 2020 Budget Act will be delayed, thus preventing the government to use fiscal tools to fully steer the Thai economy. In addition, drought is dampening farm income while the government’s investment budget is being held up due to the delayed 2050 fiscal budget. ...Read more
30 Jan 2020
International Economy
The transmission of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (n-CoV) continues to escalate, prompting the Chinese authorities to take extreme measures to prevent the virus from spreading. For example, they locked down 18 cities in Hubei province by closing off access to the cities and transportation in the province. Moreover, group tours and travel packages organized by both domestic and international travel agents are suspended....Read more
5 Feb 2020
Industry
The airline businesses have faced tough challenges due to pricing competition, which has steadily reduced the average airfares. Moreover, the demand for air travel began to slow, resulting in a drop in airline business value for the first time in 2019 to 314 billion Baht....Read more
4 Feb 2020
2020 may be another difficult year for Thai car exports. Despite a positive factor, i.e., a likelihood that the Baht may not be as strong as that seen in 2019, there are a number of factors that may inevitably cause Thai car shipments to shrink in 2020. These include economic problems continuing from last year, the fact that Australia, being our key trade partners, is being gripped by bushfires, and the current novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreaks that may adversely affect tourism in our trade partners, in particular Vietnam and the Philippines, being our second and third largest car export markets, with relatively high number of Chinese tourist arrivals and high tourism income to GDP ratios....Read more
From January 1, 2020, Thailand has begun a campaign to ban single-use plastic bags under the Plastic Waste Management Road Map 2018-2030 of the Pollution Control Department. KResearch views that the ban will significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic bags. It will affect supply chains of the plastic bag industry but create opportunities for other substitute merchandise....Read more
Financial Markets
The Baht weakened in line with other regional currencies amid concerns over the economic impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. In addition, the Baht was weighed down by net foreign stock selling during the week, and domestic US dollar demand at the month-end. ...Read more
24 Jan 2020
The Baht fell against the US dollar. The Baht rose early in the week along with regional currencies amid profit-taking on the US dollar’s gains fueled by strong US economic reports released before. However, the Baht reversed those gains and fell in line with Asian peers, led by the Yuan, on the back of concerns about the spread of novel coronavirus that emerged in central China with confirmed cases of spreading to other countries. ...Read more
22 Jan 2020
Financial Institutions
The reduction in home ownership transfer fee in early 2020 and the Bank of Thailand’s decision to relax its loan-to-value (LTV) regulations for first-and second-time home buyers on January 20, 2020, with the aim of promoting home ownership and increasing consumer house-buying power, will likely give a boost to the residential market. In addition, such measures may be used by real estate developers as marketing tools to bolster and close their home sales in the future. Details of the new LTV regulations are as follows: ...Read more