Public debt drops to 42.36% of GDP

Public debt drops to 42.36% of GDP

Thailand's public debt fell slightly to 42.36% of gross domestic product, or 5.68 trillion baht, on June 30, according to the Finance Ministry.

Theeraj Athanavanich, deputy director-general of the Public Debt Management Office, said on Thursday public debt had fallen 0.04%, or 2.52 billion baht, from the previous month's level.

At the end of May, the figure was 5.69 trillion baht, or 42.58% of GDP.

Of the June debt, 94.01% or 5.34 trillion baht was borrowed locally while foreign debts made up 5.99% or US$10.11 billion (340.7 billion baht).

Foreign debts accounted for 6.31% of Thailand's foreign-exchange reserves of US$160.27 billion on June 30, reflecting a sound financial position of the country, Mr Theeraj said.

In terms of maturities, 98.03%, or 5.57 trillion baht was long-term debts and 1.97%, or 112.21 trillion short-term obligations.

At the end of June, the government's debt rose by 6.77 billion baht from the borrowing of 1.69 billion baht for Thai Airways International's Airbus A340-600 aircraft, and 1.41 billion baht for electric railway projects of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority and the State Railway of Thailand.

The debts of non-financial state enterprises dropped by 2.81 billion baht while those of financial institutions guaranteed by the government fell by 6.38 billion baht due mainly to repayments by Government Housing Bank and Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. The debts of government agencies dropped by 93.75 million baht.

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