TBA moves to prop up tourism industry
THE THAI BANKERS’ Association (TBA) will propose lending packages to support local hotels and related businesses in the tourism industry to next month’s meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking.
Predee Daochai, chairman of the TBA, said yesterday that the TBA on Wednesday night brainstormed ways to help the economy keep rolling in the second half.
The meeting came after the National Economic and Social Development Board reported that gross domestic product picked up momentum in the second quarter, speeding up 3.5 per cent year on year from 3.2 per cent in the first quarter.
Growth in the first half of this year was 3.4 per cent.
The bankers agreed that tourism should be further supported.
Each bank should provide loan packages to support hotel operators that want to renovate their properties to deal with the numbers of travellers.
The credit conditions have not been finalised because the proposal should be the acknowledged by the joint committee first.
Hotels are a part of tourism and if this business has support from banks, consumption related to tourism will also be bolstered.
The GDP result in the second quarter has prompted Kasikornbank to consider revising upward its GDP forecast for this year from the current 3 per cent, said Predee, who is also president of KBank.
However, KBank has not changed its loan growth target of 6-7 per cent.
At the TBA meeting on Wednesday night, the association also agreed that banks should do more to promote the correct understanding of PromptPay among the public through advertising and financial literacy campaigns.
The idea is for general consumers to acknowledge debt service ratios and the ability to pay debt. This will help prevent debt defaults in the banking system.
About 14 million people have signed up for the PromptPay service with commercial banks and specialised financial institutions, he added.
Supavud Saicheua, managing director of Phatra Securities, said the GDP reading in the second quarter made the brokerage revise upward its GDP projection for this year to 3.2 per cent from 2.8 per cent.
Government disbursement is the key driver of GDP. Private investment is not expected to help shore up GDP because of the low utilisation rate in manufacturing.
The utilisation rate is 65-66 per cent and export volumes did not grow, so the private sector has no need to increase investment.
The baht’s appreciation is expected to continue as long as the country has a current account surplus, he said.
