Thai Debt Clock: We Track The Impact Of A Collapse In Currency Value

Thailand’s national debt is equal to the country’s public debt. The debts of the public sector do not ordinarily count as part of the national debt.

However, there are a number of sinking funds maintained by the government, which aim to eradicate the debts of the country’s banking sector.

This fund is still be run down from the bank rescue that the government performed in the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

Thailand’s national debt was 50.4% of the country’s GDP at the end of 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is a low level, which is typical of emerging Asian economies.

Facts About The Thai National Debt

What facts should you know about Thailand’s national debt?

• You could wrap $1 bills around the Earth 721 times with the debt amount.


• If you lay $1 bills on top of each other they would make a pile 20,233 km, or 12,572 miles high.


• That's equivalent to 0.05 trips to the Moon.

Is Thailand’s National Debt Rising?

Economists are more interested in a country’s debt in relation to its annual income.

The metric that expresses national income is called Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the relationship between debt and income is called the “debt to GDP ratio.”

This measure is expressed as a percentage.

The debt to GDP ratio of Thailand peaked near to 58% around 2000. The ratio fell twice earlier in the century.

However, that ratio is the interplay between debt and income, so when the GDP raises, existing debt fall as a percentage of the national income. So, for the debt to GDP ratio to rise, the nation’s debts would have to increase aa a faster rate than GDP.

Thailand’s Projected GDP-To-Debt Ratio

According to IMF data, Thailand’s projected GDP-to-debt ratio by 2025 is to high close to an all time high at 56.9%.

Since 2015, the country’s ratio has been fairly level, though it has been increasing since 2019. I similar spike was last seen in 2003 from 34.9% to 42.4% within a year.

Thailand And The Financial Institutions Development Fund

In 1997 a collapse in the value of the Thai currency, the baht, drove more than 50 financials in the country institutions towards bankruptcy.  The government took a loan from the IMF of $14.1 billion.

The government created a “bad bank,” called the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF), which took over the debts and the loans of the country’s banks to enable the country’s banking sector to survive.

The FIDF provides depositor insurance to the country’s banks and also pays down the remaining debt from the 1997 crisis. The FIDF acquired holdings in the rescued banks in exchange for assistance.

What Happened To The FIDF Shareholdings In Recent Years?

Most of those shareholdings have now been sold off in order to help pay down the FIDF-managed debt. The Fund still owns 55.05% of Krung Thai Bank PCL.

The FIDF is now financed through the levy payments made by the country’s banks and a special FIDF bond, issued by the Bank of Thailand.

The FIDF is no longer issuing bonds to raise funds. There is still 864,437.21 million baht in these bonds still outstanding. In US Dollars, that figure works out at $26,386.97 million.

The Thai government includes the FIDF bonds in its calculation of the public debt. The FIDF borrowings represent 16.1% of Thailand’s national debt.

What Is Thailand’s Credit Rating?

Thailand had an A-grade credit rating from all of the major credit rating agencies, but lost those in the crisis 0f 1997.

Thailand was the epicenter of the 1997 financial crisis, which rolled out to damage the whole of South-East Asia. Thailand has the second-largest economy in South-East Asia and so problems in its economy have a great deal of influence on global financial markets.

International economic institutions and the financial community keep a close watch on developments in the country.

The table below shows the current credit rating of Thailand from the world’s top three agencies.

How Is Thailand’s National Debt Managed?

The Ministry of Finance sets the government’s budget. It is from this budget that the debt requirement arises.

The Ministry of Finance also designs any bailout packages, negotiates IMF assistance, and decides on government fiscal policy. So, all of the factors that could reduce or increase the national debt are in the hands of the Ministry.

The Ministry doesn’t manage the national debt directly. That job is the responsibility of the Public Debt Management Office, which was founded in 1999.

How Does the Thai Government Raise Debt?

New bonds are sold by the Bank of Thailand, which is the country’s central bank. The bank holds auctions, to which only pre-approved buyers are allowed attendance.

This is termed the “primary market” for government securities. Those approved buyers are called “Primary Dealers” and they are market makers.

They are expected to resell those bonds on the secondary market, making them available to all investors.

Government financing is split into two types:

• Short-term financing
• Long-term financing

Long-term financing provides over 94% of Thailand’s national debt. As of October 2020, that sum is over 73 trillion Thai Bahts.

Thailand’s Short-Term Government Financing

Short-term financing is sourced through Treasury bonds. These instruments do not pay any interest, but are sold at a discount and paid back at face value.

All Treasury bills have maturity dates of less than a year. The Thai government currently issues Treasury bills with maturities of 28 days, 91 days, and 182 days.

Thai government bonds that are currently in circulation have maturities of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 20 years. The government issues both fixed rate and floating rate bonds.

Typically, Thai government bonds pay interest twice a year — at six-month intervals.

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Further Reading

You may prefer to research the Thai economy further and see our economic overview of Thailand.

Debt management reviews and live debt tickers for other Asian countries:

• Malaysia’s Import, Export, and GDP Overview
• Hong Kong’s Import, Export, and GDP Overview
• Singapore’s Import, Export, and GDP Overview
• Indonesia’s Import, Export, and GDP Overview

You can find dozens of economic and trade summaries by the Commodity team.