Commercial banks' net cash withdrawal from the Bank of Thailand to prepare for people's spending during New Year holiday is estimated to rise by 2.4% over the same period last year to 120 billion baht this year, the central bank says in a statement.
The estimated higher cash demand for holiday spending suggests a brighter prospect for domestic consumption.
The Bank of Thailand estimated commercial banks will withdraw a net 120 billion baht a week before the long holiday, said Woraporn Tangsaghasaksri, assistant governor at the central bank's banknote management group.
The central bank has prepared various denominations of banknotes to adequately meet people's demand, he said.
Bangkok Bank planned to allocate cash reserves worth 60 billion baht through 10,000 ATMs nationwide to prepare for people's withdrawals during the long holiday, starting from Dec 30, 2017 to Jan 2, 2018.
Services at the bank's 300 micro-branches, located in dense markets including department stores, will be available as normal during the holiday, while its full branches will reopen on Jan 3, 2018.
Kasikornbank (KBank), the country's fourth-largest commercial bank by assets, said it will maintain 35 billion baht of cash reserves for its branches and ATMs for the four-day holiday.
Of that total, 11 billion baht is allocated for branches nationwide -- 4.4 billion for Bangkok and the remaining 6.6 billion for the provinces.
Some 24 billion baht will be available at KBank's more than 9,200 ATMs nationwide, with 10 billion for the machines in Bangkok and 14 billion for those in the provinces.
KBank's total cash reserves for branches this year remain the same as last year, while those for ATMs are up 3% on year in anticipation of higher spending demand.
In related news, CIMB (Thai) has prepared cash reserves for people's withdrawal during the New Year holiday amounting to 440 million baht, the bank said in a statement. The money will be put into the bank's 124 on- and off-premise ATMs across the country.