The Ministry of Finance has expressed confidence in its capacity to handle the national debt, which has an average maturity of 9 years and 1 month.
Traisulee Traisoranakul, Deputy Government Spokesman, issued the remark during this week’s Cabinet meeting. She stated that the Cabinet authorized a loan for government debt restructuring with a payback period of more than 12 months during the fiscal year 2022.
The Public Debt Management Office has borrowed 1.2 trillion baht, accounting for 87% of the fiscal year’s debt management strategy. 53% of total, or 643.3 billion baht, has a payback period longer than 12 months.
The goal of this debt restructuring loan is to manage the government’s debt and decrease short-term debt concentration. The entire outstanding state debt as of the end of fiscal year 2022 was 9.16 trillion baht. Short-term debt with a maturity of less than one year accounted for 6.13%, or 561.3 billion baht, while long-term debt with a maturity of one year or more accounted for 8.6 trillion baht, or 93.87%. As a result, the bulk of the debt has an average life of 9 years and one month.
The Ministry of Finance verified that the government can manage the debt ratio, even when combined with state-owned company debts that the government is responsible for. This is consistent with the risk indicators established for debt restructuring in the medium-term public debt management strategy for the next five years.
