BANGKOK: Thai banks’ non-performing loans stood at 2.73 percent of total lending at the end of December 2022, up from 2.77 percent at the end of September, helped by debt restructuring, said the Monday the central bank.
The banking system remained strong with high levels of capital, loan loss provisions and liquidity and was able to support the economic recovery and future lending, the Bank of Thailand said in a statement.
Bad loans are likely to rise, but not dramatically, while existing debt measures are sufficient to support vulnerable groups, central bank assistant governor Suwannee Jatsadasak told a news conference.
The BOT will continue to monitor household debt service, which has remained fragile, and the recovery of some business groups, the BOT said.
Loans grew 2.1 percent in 2022, slowing from the 6.5 percent rise a year earlier, due in part to debt payments by large companies, the BOT said.
Suwannee said lending is likely to grow in line with the economy, but did not give a specific forecast.
Thailand’s economy contracted unexpectedly in the last quarter of 2022 from the previous three months, with full-year annual growth of 2.6%, up from an expansion of 1.5% in the previous year, which it was among the slowest in Southeast Asia.
The state planning agency forecast economic growth of 2.7% to 3.7% in 2023.
