THAILAND’s central bank will introduce targeted measures to help debtors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of extending a broad based-debt moratorium.
Despite being Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, the country posted its deepest contraction in over two decades in the second quarter as the pandemic battered tourism and domestic activity.
“The central bank will monitor the situation closely and as it was not expected to experience rapid and large defaults after the six-month debt holiday ended last Thursday,” Assistant Governor Roong Mallikamas told a briefing yesterday.
“The Bank of Thailand will ask banks to maintain until the end of this year the status of their debtors in restructuring talks so that they will not become non-performing loans,” she said, adding that banks can also extend debt repayment periods for six months after the end of 2020.
“The situation today is different from six months ago and we should be able to better separate and select appropriate solution for each group,” Roong said. – Oct 17, 2020
