It is unlikely to replace the country's stock exchange index, but Thailand has come up with a new economic barometer - the Mama Noodle Index.
When the economy gets bad, sales of Mama, the country's top-selling brand of instant noodles, shoot up, according to economists and businesspeople quoted by The Nation newspaper yesterday.
'One of the more bizarre economic indicators to emerge in recent years, the noodle index works like this: tighten your belt; spend less on food. As a cheap eat, instant noodle sales therefore rise exponentially,' the newspaper said.
As Thailand's economy recovered in recent years from the 1997 economic crisis, Mama sales were steady.
But with economic weakness beginning to show up last year, sales went up by 5 per cent and then jumped 15 per cent over the first seven months of this year from the same period last year.
Thailand's economic performance is expected to slow to a growth rate of 3 per cent to 4 per cent this year because of record high oil prices, violence in southern Thailand and the after-affects of the December 26 tsunami.