BANGKOK: Thailand needs to urgently resolve problems of credit access for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are key for the economy, a deputy central bank governor says.
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 yesterday.
“The BoT has been aware of the problems and obstacles in accessing credit for SMEs,” he said.
He added that SMEs accounted for more than a third of the economy and about 70% of total jobs.
Assistant governor Somchai Lertlarpwasin said loans for smaller firms have long contracted, and declined 5.1% 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 for SMEs to access loans.
And new Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira has said 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 2.50%. The next rate review is on June 12.
The BoT had previously said that rate cuts and fiscal stimulus would not help the economy much, and it favoured structural reforms to increase productivity. — Reuters
