BANGKOK, Nov 28 (TNA) – Household debt rose to a record high of 340,000 baht per household, according to a poll on 2019 household debt, conducted by University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).
Thanawat Polvichai, director of the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting at UTCC said the poll was conducted among 1,201 respondents across the country.
88.1 per cent of them were in debt including loans for automobile, housing loans, credit card loans, he said.
Household debt in 2019 grew 7.4 per cent on average and 79.8 per cent of respondents got loans from financial institutions.
He said it was worrying that the record high of household loan resulted from economic slowdown and Thai economy was projected to grow 2.5 -2.6 per cent this year, lower than 3 per cent for the first time in five years.
Slow economic growth could affect people’s income, so they needed to seek loans for personal consumption expenditure.
He suggested that the government put in place economic stimulus measures to revive the Thai economy on the first quarter of 2020.
Household debt currently stands at about 78 per cent of GDP, he added. (TNA)
