Thai household debt hits record high in decade

BANGKOK, September 3 (TNA) -- Thai household debt increased to a record 10-year high and 80.2 per cent of the total households are suffering from debt, said Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the Economic and Business Forecast Centre of the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce. Mr Thanawat said a survey, conducted between August 20 – 28 by his Centre, found that the average household debt increases to 248,004 baht, sharply rose from 159,432.23 baht last year. Unsurprisingly, 51.3 per cent of them suffered debt outside the legal financial institution and the rest with the legal ones, said Mr Thanawat. It also marked the first time that more people owed money to loan sharks. He said the most worrisome found by the survey was that people borrowed money for daily expenses by as much as 37.1 per cent and 22.7 per cent to settle payment with illegal money lenders. As many as 87.8 per cent of the borrowers have problems in settling the debt, also highest in the past decade. With the household debt rising, the number of people saving money falling automatically and, according to the survey, only 32.7 per cent has money in saving and those who do not blamed the rising cost of living in Thailand, said Mr Thanawat. He suggested that the government ought to revitalise Thailand’s economy, especially through injecting money to assist low-income earners. The plan by the government to inject 40 billion baht on repairing infrastructure projects would help the poor. (TNA)