Commercial bank loans and savings expanded in November from a month earlier, according to Bank of Thailand statistics.
Outstanding loans were valued at 13.3 trillion baht in November, rising from October's value of 13.2 trillion.
Outstanding loans to businesses recorded a value of 5.55 trillion baht in November, up from October's 5.47 trillion. Consumer loans totalled 4.7 trillion baht in November, up from 4.63 trillion.
Outstanding loans given to state enterprises and state agencies amounted to 27.3 billion baht in November, up from 23.7 billion.
Don Nakornthab, the central bank's senior director of the financial institutions strategy department, said the government's soft loan programme provided to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could be a factor behind November's loan growth.
Full-year loan expansion of 5% is possible after bank loans in the final quarter grew by 300 billion baht, he said.
The government's "Shopping for the Nation" scheme could also boost loan growth in the final quarter.
State measures to help SMEs through slow economic conditions include 100 billion baht in soft loans, a 100-billion-baht credit guarantee to encourage banks to lend to SMEs, a 10% tax rate for two years, a five-year corporate income tax exemption for SME start-ups and 6 billion in venture capital to be contributed by state-backed banks.
The shopping campaign allowed taxpayers to deduct up to 15,000 baht spent on certain goods and services from Dec 15-31 from their personal income tax.
Kasikorn Research Center managing director Charl Kengchon said the SME soft loan scheme was expected to be the main force behind November's loan growth as commercial banks received a cash injection from state-owned banks to provide loans to SMEs.
Meanwhile, outstanding bank deposits were valued at 12.3 trillion baht in November, up from October's value of 12.2 trillion.
November's business deposits were valued at 3.4 trillion baht, up from 3.3 trillion. Government deposits amounted to 734 billion baht, up from 688 billion.
Deposits parked by securities asset management companies were valued at 29 billion baht, up from October's 27 billion.
The overall rise in November's bank deposits could have come from extra deposits made by depository institutions, which did not indicate any particular development in the general outlook of last year's bank deposits, said Mr Charl.
Financial institutions did not make a move to raise bank deposits last year due to the fragile economy and rising non-performing loans, he said. Customers might not want to obtain bank loans on the back of an export contraction and low commodity prices.