The outbreak of the COVID-19 greatly affects the Thai economy.

Many
small and medium-sized businesses have had to slow down their
production and investment. Including the major industries such as the
automotive industry was heavily affected causing Thailand's car
production in April to hit its lowest level in 30 years amid weak global
demand.

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) revealed that domestic car sales
dropped significantly in the first quarter. This may cause the
automotive industry may not reach the 1-million-unit threshold this
year, which would be a 50% decrease from 2019 if the outbreak
continues lasts until September.

The total export volume in the past four months and the domestic sale
of cars also steadily declined. Production dropped by 83.6 percent as
carmakers chose to temporarily close factories at the end of March.
Moreover, global carmakers shut down production from March to April
due to reduced car sales and government policies allowing employees
to work from home.

At the same time, the FTI said that the industrial confidence index in
April was stood at 75.9, less than the previous month’s 88 and 69.5
percent of businesses were concerned about the state of the global
economy, especially when the outbreak of the Covid-19 and the
government’s lockdown measures.
In the near future, the government will consider the option of solving
loan issues to help businesses and cut the key interest rate in a move to
help the economy recover.