BANGKOK, 4 June 2014 – According to the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), more Thais are likely to default on their debt payments due to soaring expenses per household.
The NESDB reported that in 2014, most families would likely be unable to pay-off their debts in a timely manner as non-performing loans (NPLs) among consumer loans rose as much as 31.3 percent.
During the first three months of this year, defaults on loans longer than a three month period has increased to 42 percent.
Even though each household earns about 25,200 baht on average, their average expenses per month could reach as high as 19,000 baht.
The total debt per household stood at around 163,000 baht, which is a 9.95 percent increase from last year. At least 8 million households, which account for about 42.25 percent of all households in Thailand, are unable to earn enough income to cover their expenses.
Apart from that, 11.4 million households across Thailand had only 100,000 baht or less in their savings. Only 700,000 households were able to accumulate up to 500,000 baht of savings or higher.
