Thai debt reaches US$25.5b

Thai debt reaches US$25.5b

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand's economic crisis has sent public sector debt ballooning 82 percent to more than a trillion baht (US$25.5 billion), reports said Tuesday.

The debt amounts to around 26,000 baht for every one of Thailand's 65 million people, the Nation daily reported.

The figures were contained in a report submitted to the country's Council of Economic Ministers, the paper said.

"The mountain of debt has grown from the government's obligations to guarantee the financial system and bail out finance companies and banks which collapsed in the economic crisis since mid 1997," the paper said.

Public debts rose from 15 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 1996 to 34.3 percent of GDP in June this year, the paper said.

The figures show an 82 percent rise in public sector debt from November 1997, the report said.