THAI households are more concerned about cost of living as shown by Kasikornbank Research Center’s KR Household Economic Condition Index (KR-ECI) sliding for the second month in a row in January, Thai News Agency said today (Feb. 12).
This index dropped to 44.0 points from 44.3 in December 2016 with the baseline being 50 because households here are more concerned about the cost of goods, expenditure and household debt but at the same time are less worried about income and savings.
Households’ economic expectations for the next three months (Three-month Expected KR-ECI) also dropped for the first time in seven months to 44.5 points last month from 45.6 in December 2016 with this showing continued concern in the future especially about the cost of goods, expenditure and debts. Their heightened concern could affect private sector consumption.
However Kasikornbank Research Center expects household confidence to gradually improve over the next one to two months because of seasonal factors and short-time issues being resolved. Even so this center warned that it is essential to keep track of prices of goods particularly the price of petrol which would be fluctuating according to global conditions.
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Top: Shoppers at a supermarket offering discounts. Photo: Thai News Agency
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