Industry confidence down on wage hike

Industry confidence down on wage hike

The Thai Industries Sentiment Index (TISI) was down from 98.8 in December, 2012 to 97.3 in January, Payungsak Chartsuthipol, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), said on Thursday.

The FTI’s industry confidence survey was conducted in January, involving 1,085 manufacturers in 42 industry groups under the umbrella of the FTI.

Mr Payungsak attributed the drop in industry confidence to declining overall orders, output and higher production costs, particularly labour costs.

The survey showed that one main factor that eroded confidence of manufacturers was the government’s 300 baht daily minimum wage nationwide policy, which severely affected small and medium enterprises (SMEs), he said.

The persistent baht appreciation and global economic uncertainty were other factors in keeping the confidence of manufacturers below the 100 level, showing low confidence overall in the industry sector, he added.

However, industry confidence in the next three months increased to 101.5 from 100.6 reported in December, on the back of rising orders, overall sales outlook, output and business performance.

The survey also showed that industrial manufacturers were concerned about the impact of rising oil prices, global economic crisis, internal political conflict, foreign exchange rates and loan rates.

They wanted the government to provide training courses for SMEs to enable them to use tools to prevent risk on exchange rates, offer an exemption or reduction on corporate income withholding tax for those hired to produce products, and to support manufacturers to join force to establish business network to strengthen trade competitiveness.

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