The improving economy and rapidly recovering tourism sector led new business registrations to rise by 6% year-on-year in January, reaching the highest level in a decade.
According to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, the number of newly registered businesses last month tallied 8,466, up 6% from 7,972 in January last year, with a combined registered capital of 20.9 billion baht.
The top three new business categories were construction, real estate and food and beverage establishments, which accounted for 19.2% of all newly registered businesses in January 2023.
General building construction businesses accounted for 704 registrations, followed by real estate businesses with 545 registrations, and food and beverage businesses with 379 registrations.
The leading three categories tallied an overall increase of 11.6% in registrations compared with last year, reflecting an improving economic situation, particularly in terms of domestic and foreign tourism as the country remained fully reopened, said the ministry.
Government measures to improve the economy and support entrepreneurs may have contributed to the increase in business registrations, according to the Business Development Department.
In addition, certain factors in the production sector eased, with the consumer confidence index and business confidence index both reporting continuous gains, according to the department.
The department predicted the number of newly registered businesses in the first half of 2023 would be 40,000-42,000, reaching 72,000-77,000 for the full year.
Some 1,297 businesses ceased operations in January, up 30% year-on-year. The registered capital value of businesses that ceased operations last month was 4.26 billion baht.
The three categories with the largest number of firms ceasing operations were: building construction, with 141 businesses or 11% of the total; real estate, with 54 businesses or 4% of the total; and hotels and restaurants, with 44 businesses or 3% of the total.
As of Jan 31, there were 857,511 businesses registered and operational in Thailand, with a combined capital value of 21.4 trillion baht.
Among the total, 654,488 were limited companies accounting for 76.3%, 201,641 were partnerships accounting for 23.5%, and 1,382 were public companies accounting for 0.16%.
