Average Thai Household Debt Stands At Bt 118,434

[george]

Average household debt stands at Bt118,434

BANGKOK: -- With an average household income of Bt17,122 in the first half of this year, more than half the households surveyed in a recent study had average debts of Bt118,434, the National Statistical Office said Monday.

Most households have monthly costs of Bt14,640, or around 85.5 of their incomes. The average debt reached Bt118,434, or 6.9 times their incomes. Most debts have been incurred through purchases of land and residences, consumption and business investment.

Only 3.4 per cent of debts were incurred by further education and training courses.

While the average household income was 7 per cent higher than in 2005, the average living costs were 9.1 per cent higher in the same period, mainly due to travel expenses caused by higher oil prices.

-- The Nation

[manjara]

Average household debt stands at Bt118,434

BANGKOK: -- With an average household income of Bt17,122 in the first half of this year, more than half the households surveyed in a recent study had average debts of Bt118,434, the National Statistical Office said Monday.

Most households have monthly costs of Bt14,640, or around 85.5 of their incomes. The average debt reached Bt118,434, or 6.9 times their incomes. Most debts have been incurred through purchases of land and residences, consumption and business investment.

Only 3.4 per cent of debts were incurred by further education and training courses.

While the average household income was 7 per cent higher than in 2005, the average living costs were 9.1 per cent higher in the same period, mainly due to travel expenses caused by higher oil prices.

-- The Nation

Are they saying that the average income is 17,122 /month?

If so, then the average debt seems pretty low. If my salary in Europe was 4000/month and I only had debts (e.g. mortgage) of 28,000 then it would be pretty low gearing.

In the UK, mortages are typically 3 times ANNUAL salary, which would be 616,392 baht (for mortgage alone).

My impression is that many thais borrow far more (multiple-wise) than this, but I suppose the figures will be skewed by a large number of low-paid households that have no or limited debt.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of these figures by income bracket. e.g. 20-30k/month, 30-40k/month.

[cclub75]

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of these figures by income bracket. e.g. 20-30k/month, 30-40k/month.

Indeed. In a country with such a gap between hi and low wages, thoses "average" figures are... pretty meaningless.

Edited October 16, 2006 by cclub75

[stumonster]

I wonder if they included the post paid mobile phone accounts in this ?

[Khutan]

Interesting as when you get outside Bangkok, there are plenty who don't pay tax, simply as they don't earn enough income. So I wonder how the estimates were derived.

I know in my wife's Tombon there are only 3 taxpayers.

[cclub75]

http://web.nso.go.th/eng/stat/subject/subject.htm#cata10

To better understand their methodology and figures :

http://web.nso.go.th/eng/stat/subject/toc10.xls

Differents datas with type of income, localisation, type of worker etc.

But the new version of the website is only in thai language.

Note a PDF document, that is linked to Excell file :

http://web.nso.go.th/eng/pub/keystat/key03/key.pdf

With figures of 2002.

For instance in 2002, household total income was 13 736 THB, but 28 239 THB in Greater Bangkok.

Edited October 16, 2006 by cclub75