Household debt in Thailand highest in 12 years

 

Thai workers look at job advertisements displayed at the Labour Ministry in Bangkok.(Photo by PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL / AFP)

 

COVID-19 can be blamed for pushing Thai household debt to its highest level in 12 years, around 480,000 baht per household, said The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).

 

The rector of UTCC, Thanawat Polwichai (ธนวรรธน์ พลวิชัย), said that the data collected from over 1,000 participants shows that the household debt in 2020 reached 483,950 baht per household surveyed, due to the higher costs of living and lack of income due to unemployment. The survey also shows that more than 70 percent of the debt is new, and is a result of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19.

 

The participants said they may miss loan or credit repayments, 72 percent blamed the ailing economy, around 60 percent simply said their income does not match the expenses, and around 55 percent said they are earning less than before.

 

Source: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/household-debt-in-thailand-highest-in-12-years/

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-01-12

 

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No surprise here, but scary figures. 

A fair share of this is all these long weekends to in their minds stimulate tourism.  When in fact, it has been creating huge credit card debt and probably most recently contributed to some virus spread.

Poorly managed backwards thinking.

Two things here the first being the 1% don't give a flying the bottom 99% are facing a cliff edge or have already fallen and the second is the baht will rise on any good or bad news ???? 

Finally caught up with the civilised West.

Living beyond one's means.

Mindless consumption and accumulation.

Easy credit...easy to get, not so easy to pay back

58 minutes ago, webfact said:

over 1,000 participants

I don't think that a 1000 participants in the study out of 70+ million Thai people reflect the true measure of the household debit, true, many people lost their life's works, saving, businesses and opportunity but a bigger survey needed to know the true extend of the situation... 

I wonder how much the household of Chan O-cha is in debt???

2 hours ago, webfact said:

COVID-19 can be blamed for pushing Thai household debt to its highest level in 12 years, around 480,000 baht per household, said The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).

Boy that is a hefty chunk of change if that is the average debt owed and not by just those polled.  I would suspect that is not your average Thai citizen, but rather a snapshot of someone in the middle class.  If Grandma and Grandpa in the outer provinces who live on a shoestring budget to begin with were that much in debt, then there is definitely something wrong. You have to wonder if the Government has any plans to assist the people more than they have.  I am sure that it has nothing to do with unemployment or the death of tourism.  Of course Billions of baht are being made on the tourism sectors ASQ hotel scheme for those wanting to come here and yet must endure the quarantine program first.

2 hours ago, baansgr said:

Easy credit...easy to get, not so easy to pay back

Most of the time it's not paid back without any consequences hence the reason they don't care about the debt.

 

I went overseas and turned on my roaming on Thai SIM for approx 2 days, when i returned phone never worked so went to the providers office.

I had a 46,000baht bill ( although previously i'd set limit at 10,000 ), i offered to pay the 10,000 baht or nothing, they insisted that i pay full amount so i walked away, no reprecussions at all, only blacklisted from that company.

 

That's a very small amount compared to what some owe.

 

Just one small example, i'm 100% sure there are many like this, the paperwork and house address's etc is a complete shambles to confirm where someone lives or not to follow up these debts, plus they have nothing to offer to pay back - joke really!

Yet they still offer Civil Servants and Ex Civil Servants constant cheap loans and low interest loans on Car Purchase etc.   My Wife has been retired now for ten years but still gets constant offers of cheap loans from Banks and other Institutions and we have asked on numerous occasions to stop recieving them as we don't want them but still they come as everything you say is just ignored.   We have several friends still working and retired and most are up to their necks in debt, some with over 2 Million Baht.

MIght be real number despite only 1000 households in that survery.

 

This is before covid so it might be even worse right now.
"Debt accumulated by teachers nationwide in Thailand has risen to crisis levels, totaling 1.1 trillion baht, about 16% of the public debt. With the average teacher owing approximately 3 million baht"

34 minutes ago, dblh said:

MIght be real number despite only 1000 households in that survery.

 

This is before covid so it might be even worse right now.
"Debt accumulated by teachers nationwide in Thailand has risen to crisis levels, totaling 1.1 trillion baht, about 16% of the public debt. With the average teacher owing approximately 3 million baht"

The cultural hierarchical social system should be addressed, where teachers are expected to not have an older car that those lower down the caste system. This is a spiritual problem, not a financial one.

Does this survey take into account money owed to illegal money lenders and loan sharks?

7 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

Finally caught up with the civilised West.

Living beyond one's means.

Mindless consumption and accumulation.

 

Some truth. 

 

But you can only spend so little!

The longer countries pursue this failed Keynesian economic model of spending = healthy economy the worse it will get.

 

There is no substitute for sound capital investment and asset accumulation.