BANGKOK, 12 September 2014 – The University of Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) revealed an increasing number of debts among credit-card holders.
Thanavat Polvichai, the Director for the UTCC’s Economic and Business Forecasting Center, expressed his worry after he found out that about 87% of Thai credit-card holders had overdue payments, which lead to an increasing concern of growing levels of household debt.
The center found that groups with the highest debts were students and cardholders who earn income less than 20,000 baht a month, yet they had outstanding debts three times higher than their monthly earnings.
UTCC conducted a survey of 1,198 participants taken during Sept 1-6. The result of the survey showed that only 13% of the total participants paid off their entire balance, while 47.7% paid 10-20% of their balance, 28% paid only 5% of their balance, and 11.3% defaulted on their debt payments.
The university suggested that the government should educate people on self-sufficient living, reducing costs of living, managing interest rates, and creating jobs in a bid to tackle the issue of credit-card and household debt.
