THAILAND needs to urgently resolve problems of credit access for small- and medium-sized businesses, which are key for the economy, a deputy central bank governor said on Tuesday (Jun 4).
The problems are structural, and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the finance ministry are working to fix the issues, Ronadol Numnonda said at a seminar.
“The BOT has been aware of the problems and obstacles in accessing credit for SMEs,” he said, adding SMEs accounted for more than a third of the economy and about 70 per cent of total jobs.
Assistant governor Somchai Lertlarpwasin said that loans for smaller firms have long contracted, and declined 5.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 from a year earlier.
Less than half of 3.2 million SMEs have access to loans from financial institutions, he added.
Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul has previously said the government plans to provide credit guarantees worth 50 billion baht (S$1.8 billion) for SMEs to access loans.
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And new Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira has said that he is more worried about people’s access to credit than the level of interest rates.
In April, the central bank left its key interest rate at a more than decade-high of 2.5 per cent. The next rate review is on Jun 12.
The BOT has previously said that rate cuts and fiscal stimulus would not help the economy much, and it favoured structural reforms to increase productivity. REUTERS
