Thai household debt at record high, survey finds
Thai household debt has exceeded 500,000 baht this year, fuelled by the higher cost of living, according to results of a survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting.
Assoc Prof Thanavath Phonvichai, the university’s president and the centre’s chief adviser, said on Thursday that Thailand’s household debt on average stood at 501,711 baht this year, a 3.7 per cent increase from last year.
He said the debt per household was the highest since the centre began its annual survey on Thai household debt 13 years ago.
Thanavath blamed the increase on higher prices of food and consumer products caused by higher fuel prices, as the country’s economy is yet to fully recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“People’s incomes do not match their expenditures, as the economy has not seen a full recovery,” he said.
The academic also said that of all the debts, 78.9 per cent were borrowed from financial institutions while the remaining 21.1 per cent were from lenders outside the banking system.
“If the economy recovers, people will be more capable of paying back their debts," he said.
Thanavath suggested that the government focus next year on encouraging investments, both from the public and private sectors, to help distribute incomes to rural areas.
Investments in infrastructure could ensure the country’s economic recovery in the long run, he said. It was better than economic stimulus measures, he said.
This will likely stimulate spending by the middle class who have earned more income, according to Thanavath.
