Thailand’s consumer confidence index in July rose for the second consecutive month amid hopes of economic recovery, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Overall confidence in July increased to 66.3 from 65.4 as consumers hope that the Thai economy will improve following the government’s economic stimulus packages and extension of measures to help low income earners, according to Dr Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the Center for Commerce and Business at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

However, the consumer confidence index is still below 100, indicating that consumers still lack confidence and worry about the world economic slowdown, political uncertainty, the swine flu outbreak and rising gasoline prices, the UTCC said in a statement.

The public is waiting for the government‘s stimulus packages to produce tangible results in September in order to build confidence among consumers, the statement said.

Dr Thanavath said the government should create more employment, control energy prices by reducing the diesel tariff collected from consumers to the State Oil Fund and maintain political stability.

If the government is able to speed up budget disbursement to implement its stimulus packages, the Thai economy in the fourth quarter will likely turn positive to grow by 1-2 per cent, even though the country’s GDP this year has contracted by 3.5 per cent, he said.
 
“Although the consumer confidence index has improved, it has not returned to normal yet because the public have slowed their spending. It’s expected that the index will return to normal in the second quarter next year and the investment of the private sector is expected to pick up in the late first quarter next year, said Dr Thanavat.