Thailand's business confidence index rose to 49.6 in February 2026, up from a three-month low of 49.1 in January. Sentiment improved for overall order books (52.2 vs. 50.5), investment (52.5 vs. 51.4), and employment (50.8 vs. 49.1). In contrast, confidence weakened for performance (50.7 vs. 51.3) and products (51.4 vs. 52.4), and deteriorated further for production costs (39.5 vs. 39.7) and output prices (49.7 vs. 49.8).
By sector, the manufacturing index increased across almost all industries. The strongest gains were seen in steel, driven by higher demand from both domestic and overseas markets, particularly the US, and in electronics, supported by continued growth in AI-related demand and data centers. The non-manufacturing index was broadly unchanged: a drop in retail trade was offset by a marked improvement in warehouse sector confidence. The three-month forward-looking sentiment index edged down to 52.0 from 52.3 in the previous month.
