GSB confident support to SMEs through bank loans will boost economy
Planned loan of 100-billion-baht to banks for onward lending to SMEs will be quickly snapped up, GSB predicts
The Government Savings Bank (GSB) is confident that its planned campaign of providing 100-billion-baht worth of loans at a low interest rate of 0.01% to banks to lend to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be overwhelmingly successful and the fund will be used up in 12 months.
GSP president Withai Ratanakorn said on Wednesday that 14 banks have expressed interest in joining the campaign, which aims to inject more capital into the economy via SME operators.
Responding to questions from Move Forward MP Sirikanya Tansakun, who is on the house committee tasked with considering the draft budget for fiscal 2025, Withai said the bank came up with the idea and would present it to the cabinet meeting next week.
He refuted rumours that the government had ordered the GSB to provide soft loans to SMEs to fix the sluggish economy.
“GSB is aware that commercial banks have employed stricter criteria in granting loans to SMEs,” said Withai. “We therefore proposed a soft loan with a low interest rate of 0.01%, which banks will then use as loans to customers at 3.5% interest, pocketing the 3.49% profit.”
Loans from GSB’s fund will therefore be much more competitive than banks’ own loans, which have interest rates of 7-8%, he said.
“We anticipate the fund will run out within a year, successfully adding more capital to the economy and raising competitiveness among commercial banks,” said Withai.
