Thailand's consumer spending to see growth in 2018

Rising disposable income could spur spending on skin-care, make-up, and accessories.

Thailand’s consumer spending could uptick amidst low unemployment, rising incomes, and positive consumer sentiments, BMI Research said.

The firm has revised its previous forecast consumer spending growth from 4.0% to 4.7% in 2018. Thailand saw a 3.2% growth in consumer spending and a real household spending rise of 1.8% in 2017.

“Within our consumer spending sub-segments, we note that personal care and effects spending will be the outperformer driven by robust non-essential spending and high female labour participation levels,” BMI Research said.

They noted that women in Thailand see greater financial autonomy as they enter the workforce which allows women to have greater control over their spending patterns in non-essentials which may include skin-care, make-up and accessories.

Female labour participation is at 60.5% in Thailand by 2017 which is higher compared to Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Furthermore, as previously highlighted we also note that rising disposable income is also spurring spending on non-essentials, which is growing at an annual average of 7.6% and outpacing essentials spending at 5.3%,” the firm commented.

They added that e-commerce players could also find opportunities in the country.

“We have previously highlighted South East Asia to be the next hot spot for e-commerce players with the region being heavily competed for by e-commerce majors like Amazon, Alibaba and JD.com,” BMI Research explained.

E-commerce sales in Thailand is expected to grow by an average of 14.1% annually between 2018 and 2022, with total spending estimated to reach USD6.6bn in 2022 from USD4.1bn in 2018.