Small and medium-sized enterprises remain worried about the slowdown in consumption, especially in the Southern and Northeastern regions, according to TMB Analytics.
Concerns about anticipated drought and the slump in rubber prices are paramount in those regions, said Benjarong Suwankiri, head of the research unit of TMB Bank.
The latest TMB-SME Sentiment Index is based on a survey in the fourth quarter of 2015 of 1,276 businesses nationwide on their confidence currently and for the next three months. For current confidence, the index improved to 40.5 points out of 100, against 34.2 in the third quarter, the first improvement since the first quarter of last year.
The higher confidence was attributed to improved consumer spending from the government's stimulus packages. Confidence for the next three months (January to March) also improved, for an index score of 56.9 out of 100, up from 53.1 points in the previous survey.
Again, the expectation of better business circumstances in the January-to-March period was attributed to the government's stimulus packages, as well as the positive outlook for tourism.
Sluggish domestic consumption and the economy were the most worrying factors for 60.9 per cent of SMEs polled, down from 63.9 per cent in the third quarter. Benjarong said that even though such worries had eased, any figure over 60 per cent was regarded as high, and was mostly due to the concerns of SMEs in the southern and northeastern provinces.
Rubber prices have not recovered yet, while palm prices are also low. Moreover, the fishing industry is not returning to a normal situation yet. SMEs in the Northeast said they were still worried that drought would affect their crop production and rice prices.
Worries over how to manage business and adequate cash flows in the fourth quarter surged to 14.6 per cent from 12.5 per cent in the third quarter.
Benjarong said TMB Analytics was still forecasting growth in gross domestic product this year at 3.5 per cent, but it could go as low as 3 per cent as the risks from China were likely to have wide impacts on Thailand's exports, especially because of low commodity prices.