CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC
Real estate, building industry top the list
New business registrations rose the first two months this year, a sign of rising confidence.
Improving economic sentiment drove new business registrations in February to 7,265, up 13% from the same period last year, with rice farming among the top three for the first time.
Thosapone Dansuputra, directorgeneral of the Business Development Department, attributed the increase to Covid-19 vaccinations, state assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises and a plan to reopen the country, allowing vaccinated foreign tourists to visit Phuket from July.
The value of registered capital for the new businesses reached 19.7 billion baht in February, down 35% yearon-year and down 36% from the 30.9 billion recorded in January.
Registrations fell by 0.3% from 7,283 in January, but Mr Thosapone said this is not a concern.
“New business registrations exceeded 7,000 for two months in a row. This reflects a business recovery and rising economic confidence,” he said.
For the first two months of the year, new registrations stood at 14,548, up 9% compared with the corresponding period last year, with a combined registered capital of 50.6 billion baht.
The top three sectors for newly registered businesses in February were building and construction (570), real estate (283) and rice plantation (225).
This marks the first time rice farming ranked among the top three sectors, mainly due to a state policy to support the establishment of community enterprises to do businesses among communities.
The number of businesses that reported liquidation in February fell 28% year-on-year to 583, with a combined registered capital of 6.36 billion baht, up 6% from the corresponding period last year.
Building and construction, real estate and restaurants were the top three sectors for businesses reporting liquidation.
The department expects the number of new registrations in the first quarter will be in the range of 19,000-20,000, with an uptrend in the second quarter in line with the economic recovery.
In 2021, new business registrations are expected to be in the range of 64,000-66,000, the department said.
Last year there were 63,340 new business registrations, down from 71,485 in 2019, because of the impact from lockdown measures enforced to contain the pandemic.