On September 10, Mr. Tanawa, President of the University of the Thailand Chamber of Commerce and Director of the Center for Economic and Business Forecasting, revealed that a sample survey of 1,300 people across Thailand from September 1 to 7, 2024 found that the family structure in Thailand has decreased, with an average household income of 50,000-100,000 baht.
Not only that, but more than 48% of people have not saved, and the number of people who have saved has also decreased this year. He said this is because the average debt of Thailand households reached 606,378 baht per household, an increase of 8.4 percent from last year, or an average of 18,787.38 baht per month, the highest level in 16 years since the agency conducted the survey and the seventh highest in the world, accounting for 90.4-90.8% of Thailand's GDP.
Tanawa said the majority of these debts are credit card debts, with the largest share of government servants. This is mainly due to a lack of income, which is forced to borrow in case of an emergency, and the rising cost of living is also having an impact on the way people live today. As far as household consumption is concerned, food and beverage consumption is still the majority, followed by housing, personal and health consumption.
He added that 64.5 per cent of the above-mentioned household consumption did not spend as planned, and more than 47.7 per cent spent more than they actually needed. In addition, 71.6 per cent of the population is in arrears, mainly due to the economic downturn, declining incomes, rising interest rates and unemployment. Debt arrears are expected to persist this year, as the economic situation remains bad and incomes do not match rising commodity prices.