Consumers' spending during Chinese New Year in Thailand close to last year’s

BANGKOK, January 24 (TNA) - Consumers' spending during the Chinese New Year 2014 in Thailand is likely to close to that of last year despite ongoing domestic political protests. Thanawat Polvichai, Director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre, under Bangkok-based University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), made the assessment based on his centre's recent survey. Thanawat told journalists that the latest survey found spending of people throughout Thailand during the Chinese New Year Festival late this month, particularly those of the Chinese origin, should be only slightly up from last year. Thanawat explained that Thais of Chinese descent will follow the Chinese tradition and buy roughly the same amount of ceremonial items to worship their late ancestors, but prices of the products will be more expensive than last year. According to the director, a total of about 47.7 billion baht should, thus, be changed hands during the Chinese New Year Festival 2014, a 5.9 per-cent year-on-year increase. The senior economist also pointed out that ongoing domestic political problems have not affected the overall Thai economy, as people appear to spend on the same amounts of consumer products, but the political woes have reduced people's sentiment for spending by 5-7 per cent, accounting for 700 million to one billion baht a day. The senior economist cautioned, however, if ongoing domestic political protests became more violent, negative impacts on the Thai tourism would increase.(TNA)