Public Debts Drops By 3.89 Billion Baht In January

[Jai Dee]

Public debts drops by Bt3.89bn in January

The country’s public debts in January dropped by 3.89 billion baht since total debts incurred by non-financial institution state enterprises and other state organisations had declined, according to the Public Debt Management Office.

Pongpanu Sawetrun, the office’s director-general, said the public debts as of January 31, 2007 totaled 3.16 trillion baht or 37.43 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), down 3.89 billion baht from the previous month, although the state borrowing increased by 14.67 billion baht and debts incurred by the Financial Institutions Development Fund continued to edge up.

He said the decline in the public debts stemmed from a reduction of total debts borne by non-financial institution state enterprises and other public organiszations.

In addition, the National Economic and Social Development Board had raised the GDP base for 2007 to 8.43 trillion baht compared with 7.81 trillion last year.

He said the Finance Ministry would issue new government bonds worth 87 billion baht in the third quarter of the 2007 fiscal year, which would begin in April.

Of the total, 24 billion baht would be used for compensation of the budget deficit, 58 billion baht for conversion of fiscal bills into government bonds and 5 billion baht for restructuring of foreign debts.

The bonds, which have a maturity of 7 and 10 years, are issued under the plan to develop the domestic secondary market.

In the first and second quarters, the Finance Ministry had already issued government bonds worth 169.2 billion baht. Of this, around 76 billion baht was used for budget deficit compensation and 32 billion for conversion of fiscal bills into government bonds.

Source: TNA - 23 March 2007