SMEs pessimistic on outlook

OSMEP's deputy director-general and acting director general Bhak Tongsom said following TSSI on November this year lower than October this year, retail and service sentiment index drop from 44 and 43.5 respectively on October 2008 to be 41.8 and 43.1 respectively on November 2008.

Meanwhile, wholsale sentiment index increase from 40.6 on October 2008 to be 42.4.

Political uncertainty especially closer the both international airport, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, by PAD is the main reason to affect TSSI confidence in November 2008.

Meanwhile, small and medium firms were also concernd that the country's economy would be hit by the global recession and purchasing power could drop. This would hurt their financial results in the end of this year till next year, he said.

However, oil price reduction is positive news for small and medium firms as it helped them reduce their production cost, he added.