Thais have scored very low in regard to their financial managementskills, according to Piyabutr Chonvicharn, Vice Chairman of the KenanInstitute Asia.
Piyabutr cited a recent survey by the Bank ofThailand and the Finance Ministry as showing that three groups of peoplemost at risk in piling up on debt are students, low-income people, andfarmers who make up at least 70 percent of the Thai population.
Hesaid that their poor spending habits have resulted in higher householddebts, which rose from 55.6 percent in 2008 to an alarming 82.3 percentin 2013.
To deal with this problem, the Kenan Institute and theCity Foundation have joined hands in a 3-year campaign to educate thesegroups of people, especially students.
The survey showed that thelatter group’s excessive spending habit was influenced by commercialadvertisements on mainstream media.
Meanwhile, Teera Phutrakul,Chairman of the Thai Financial Planners Association, stated that atleast 90 percent of Thais neither keep a record in their income andexpenses, nor take the initiative to manage their money.
Therefore, he said it is an important agenda to fix this kind of attitude in order to let the country move forward.
RatchapolLaovanitch, Managing Director for Miracle Creation, said that the mediashould play a more important role in educating Thai people on how tomanage their finances.-VNA