The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Government Housing Bank (GH Bank)'s mortgage customers seems to be declining, as suggested by the low number of them registering for the latest round of its long term debt restructuring scheme, said Chatchai Sirilai, president of GH Bank.
The bank opened for a new round of registration for the long term debt restructuring scheme during the period Dec 24, 2021 to Jan 25 this year. As of Jan 11, 50,592 bank customers had registered with the scheme, representing debt of 53.2 billion baht.
Mr Chatchai said the number of registrants in the new round was low when compared to that of previous rounds held during 2020-2021 when 846,000 customers participated in the scheme. Their total debt stood at 972 billion baht.
He added that if the customers had still not yet been able to repay debt as usual and wanted to cut their living costs, they should enter the debt restructuring programme.
Last month, the Bank of Thailand introduced guidelines for the state-run banks to provide long-term debt restructuring measures to their customers.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry instructed state financial institutions to continue providing financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals this year, including those classified as non-performing loan (NPLs), until the economy has fully recovered.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said state banks should not leave customers behind, including those listed as NPLs, as support is needed for them to resume business operations after a full economic recovery.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) downgraded its 2022 GDP growth forecast from 3.9% to 3.4%, based on the assumption that the Omicron variant would dent the prospects for growth.
The BoT maintains its outlook that the economy should return to 2019 levels in the first quarter of 2023, while GDP growth for next year is projected to be 4.7%.
