The business sector keeps urging the government to speed up easing the lockdown measures to allow firms to reopen, particularly those related to tourism and border trade, to help prop up employment.
Thanavath Phonvichai, president of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), said the latest survey on business sentiment nationwide found operators in all regions most concerned about business interruption, the escalating unemployment rate as well as a recession globally and domestically.
"They are increasingly afraid the world and Thai economies may see a long recession until 2022," said Mr Thanavath.
The National Economic and Social Development Council recently predicted Thailand may lose up to 14.4 million jobs in the second and third quarters, largely because of the coronavirus outbreak and widespread drought.
Of the total, some 8.4 million workers are estimated to be at risk of job loss, 2.5 million of whom are in the tourism sector (excluding retail and wholesale trading), 1.5 million in the industrial sector and 4.4 million in other parts of the service sector.
He said the business sector wants the government to speed up disbursement of soft loans and relax lending conditions to small and medium-sized enterprises to ease their liquidity and retain employees.
The government is also being urged to reopen more border checkpoints to recover border trade activities.
"There is now a huge demand for daily-use products from neighbouring countries," said Mr Thanavath. "During the Covid-19 pandemic and border checkpoints' closure, products from China, Vietnam and Malaysia are flooding into Cambodia, taking market share from Thailand."
The UTCC reported on Thursday business confidence dipped to 31.1 in May from 32.1 in April, 37.5 in March, 44.9 in February and 45.4 in January. The May reading was a 29-month low since January 2018.
The bearish business sentiment stemmed from the coronavirus, the state of emergency and curfew, drought and lower exports.