BANGKOK, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's central bank said on Tuesday that in the face of the pandemic fallout, 85 percent of retail debtors are still struggling in a grim economy and have applied for the second-phase of debt relief.
"Many businesses in Thailand have been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak, especially tourism-related services such as hotels, airlines and car-rent companies, which are unlikely to rebuild any time soon," said Ronadol Numnonda, deputy governor of the Bank of Thailand, adding that the arrival of 40 million tourists is a thing of the past.
"And now with the economic fallout, there is an oversupply of tourism-related industries," said Ronadol. "Therefore the Thai government, including state and private financial institutions, needs to find a solution to support and remodel these businesses and restructure their debts."
The BoT deputy governor said financial institutions, such as commercial banks, as well as specialized and non-banking financial institutions, have come up with rescue packages for their debtors.
According to the BoT statistics, as of the end of July, up to 7.2 trillion baht (228.85 billion U.S. dollars) have been spent on financial relief to 12.52 million borrowers.
The BoT said the financial relief includes debt moratorium, debt restructuring, interest rate cuts, refinancing and new soft loans.
Ronadol said that economic recovery takes time and the pandemic is still prevalent.
"We don't have a vaccine for COVID-19 yet, and it will take time before these businesses pick themselves up again," he said.
"So now 85 percent of old debtors and 15 percent of new ones have applied for second-phase debt relief help." Enditem
