The Role of Debt in Financial Health of Thai Households

Abstract

Household debt in Thailand has been expanded rapidly to 79.90% per GDP. What does
the economic facet of Thai households look like? Are they happily ready to become the elderly?
This study aimed to analyse situations regarding debt and financial health, then examine the impacts
of debt on the financial health of households in Thailand using the Household Socio-Economic
Survey (SES) in 2019. The result showed that most Thai household debt (40%) was consumer
debt, while 29.85% of the household debt was caused by purchasing a property. It also revealed
that 26.78% of the senior population had financial wellbeing, 44.32% had their financial health
at risk, and 2.89% had critical financial health. When analysing the role of debt, it was found that
households with debt caused by purchasing property were likely to have better financial health.
In contrast, households with consumer debt were likely to have more critical financial health.
It showed that Thai households have very high consumer debt. Therefore, to solve debt problems,
Thai households should hurriedly reduce the proportion of consumer debt. A financial health
check is one way to help adjust their financial behaviour with an aim to increase the number of
households with sound financial health and well-prepared wellbeing senior citizens who wouldn’t
cause financial burdens to others.