Public debt close to 43% of GDP at end of July
THAILAND'S public debt rose by Bt33.98 billion month on month to Bt5.72 trillion, or 42.85 per cent of gross domestic product, at the end of July on the back of the government's and state agencies' increased debts, according to the Public Debt Management
Theerat Attanavanij, deputy director-general of the PDMO, said the government’s outstanding debt went up by Bt21.185 billion to Bt4.09 trillion at the end of July after borrowings of Bt20 billion to offset the country’s budget deficit and internal and external borrowings of Bt7.02 billion for investment.
Of the total borrowings for investment, Bt3.23 billion in loans were extended to the Mass Rapid Transit Authority for its Green Line, Blue Line and Purple Line projects, Bt663.25 million to the State Railway of Thailand for projects, and Bt1.77 billion to Thai Airways International for the procurement of Airbus A340-600 planes. More than Bt1 billion was used to finance the water-resource-management and road-system-development projects.
Aside from the government’s debt, state agencies saw a Bt16.04-billion rise month on month in their combined borrowings to Bt22.07 billion at the end of July, while non-financial state enterprises’ debt rose by Bt85.16 billion. Financial state enterprises’ debts (guarantee by the government) reduced by Bt3.32 billion to Bt558.65 billion after the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives made a repayment of Bt2.26 billion from rice sales.
