Debt office not concerned by off-book borrowing
Planned off-budget borrowing of Bt2 trillion to finance infrastructure investment over the next seven years would not push public debt over a sustainable level, the debt agency said yesterday.
“We have revised our public debt projection by taking into account off-budget borrowing, and we find that debt would rise to about 49-50 per cent of GDP. It would not exceed 50 per cent,” said Churarat Sutheethorn, the new director-general of the Public Debt Management Office.
Public debt will stay within 50 per cent of gross domestic product by 2019, she said. Next year public debt would not exceed 47 per cent, up slightly from 44 per cent this year.
The government needs Bt350 billion in borrowing for flood prevention-related projects next year, Bt300 billion for budget deficits and Bt160 billion for the rice-pledging scheme.
The government has set the safe level of public debt at 60 per cent of GDP and debt servicing at no more than 15 per cent of total annual expenditures.
Critics, however, worry about the runaway cost of the rice subsidy and other populist schemes while the government has little room to collect more taxes.
