Thailand prioritises to handle informal debt
Thailand will give priority to tackle informal debt to revive the economy, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Srettha Thavisin said at a press conference on November 28.
Thai Prime Minister and Finance Minister Srettha Thavisin (Photo: Bangkokpost)Informal debt is a chronic problem, he said, adding the government will coordinate with police to prevent unregulated lending.
He said the measures, to solve one of the region's worst household debt problems, will help with debt restructuring and prevent people from taking on more debt that necessary.
The government estimates that there is about 50 billion THB (1.43 billion USD) of informal debt; however, this was a conservative estimate and the problem could be larger.
Meanwhile, statistics from the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) showed that household debt at the end of the second quarter stood at more than 16 trillion THB, up 3.6% year on year and accounting for 90.6% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Last week, Srettha said that the country's economy was in crisis, stressing the need to forge ahead with the government's 500 billion THB digital handouts policy. The "digital wallet" policy, which entails handouts of 10,000 THB to 50 million Thai people next year to spend in their localities, has come under criticism in recent months by economists and former central bankers over risks of it breaching financial discipline./.
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