Thailand’s Average Household Debt Highest in Ten Years

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BANGKOK – According to a poll result of the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thai households have an average debt of 248,004 baht each this year which represents an increase of 13.16 percent of last year’s average of a 219,158 baht which is the highest in ten years.

Mr Thanawat Pholvichai, director of the economic and business forecast centre of the UTCC, said Thursday that the poll result came from an opinion survey of 1,200 households during August 20-28.

Of the average household debt of 248,004 baht this year, 48.7 percent are organized debt and the rest are unorganized debt, said Mr Thanawat, pointing out that the increased household debt reflected the economic slowdown in the past three years which has affected household revenues.

He explained that the fact that households were indebted to unorganized lenders more than to organized lenders because they had limited access to organized source of funding.

The causes of increased household debts range from lower incomes, increased cost of living, poor farm harvests, increased spending through credit cards to increased tuition fees of their children, gambling and excessive spending on hire purchases.

The survey shows that 87.8 percent of the debtors have problem of debt servicing; average household debt repayment amounts to 14,033 baht per month, representing an increase of 5.06 percent from last year’s 10,752 baht.