Exim Thailand cuts lending interest rate to help customers amid virus crisis
The Export-Import Bank of Thailand (Exim Thailand) has cut its lending interest rate, comprising the minimum overdraft rate, minimum loan rate (MLR) and minimum retail rate (MRR), from 5.985 per cent per annum to 5.75 per cent, the lowest in the banking industry today, effective from March 19.
Bank president Pisit Serewiwattana said the move is aimed at supporting and enabling the bank’s customers and entrepreneurs to continue international trade and investment with lower operating costs amid the current global and Thai economic uncertainty sparked by the Covid-19 outbreak.
In addition, Exim Thailand has in place a debt suspension scheme for exporters.
Under the scheme, the bank is allowing suspension of principal repayment and interest for six months for customers with long-term and short-term credit lines and affected by the Covid-19 spread, and expanded insurance protection for exporters after shipment or those in the process of shipment to China.
The bank is also offering credit programmes with special interest rates lower than the MLR and MRR for entrepreneurs of all sectors, such as the Exim Investment and Production Efficiency Enhancement Credit Scheme, which provides long-term loans to encourage business people to purchase and improve their machinery and equipment or factories in order to lift production efficiency, with a special interest rate of 2 per cent per annum in the first two years.
