Mother's Day spending over the long weekend this week is estimated at 13 billion baht, edging up only 2.7% year on year due to economic concerns, according to a survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).
Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the UTCC's Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting, said on Tuesday that the spending on the special occasion amounted to 12.7 billion baht last year.
An annual increment below 4% indicates consumers have economic concerns and a slight increase has continued for six years, he said.
"Spending is usually considerable on the Mother's Day [Aug 12]. But it will increase only slightly this year, below 3%, and this is an abnormal sign," Mr Thanavath said.
The lacklustre forecast indicates the confidence level of consumers, who are cautious about their spending in the face of the economic outlook, he said.
There was no purchasing power in some business sectors and economic expansion concentrated in some sectors only such as exports and tourism, Mr Thanavath said.
Of the respondents, 67.7% said they would spend more as they earned higher and expected an economic recovery; 19.7% would spend less because their income dropped and they still saw a poor economy; and 12.6% said they would spend at the same level as they did last year, he said.