The government and Bank of Thailand took their first steps toward easing the financial impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis.
The Cabinet on Monday approved a stimulus package aimed at injecting 400 billion baht into the economy while the BOT has introduced debt-relief measures.
While the economic hit of the coronavirus epidemic has hit the entire country, the tourism industry has been particularly hard hit, with the Tourism Ministry saying international arrivals plummeted 44 percent in February from a year before. Hotels, tour guides and tourist attractions all have cut staff kicking off a domino effect across the country.
Ronadol Numnonda, deputy BOT governor for financial institution stability, said the central bank is allowing small- and medium-sized enterprises to restructure their bank debt without damaging their credit history, easing debt-classification criteria and giving banks more flexibility to approve loans to keep debtors liquid.
The BOT also urged commercial banks to lower the minimum payment limit for credit-card holders to 5% from the current 10%.
The relief will remain in effect until the end of 2021.
The government’s stimulus package, meanwhile, includes 150 billion baht in soft loans to banks to relend to customers. Loans are capped at 20 million baht. There also is a moratorium on principal payments, debt payment extensions and rights to borrow from special financial institutions.
The Finance Ministry said the package will benefit 14.6 million low-income earners, 50,000 village funds, 7.2 million farming households and 3 million SMEs, or 99% of all businesses. It’s expected to create 14 million jobs or about 85% of all employment nationwide.
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