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Thailand's bad loan ratio is worse than China's

Bloomberg Published on Wed, Jun 21, 2017 / 8:16 AM GMT+8

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(June 21): Non-performing loans at Thailand’s banks are set to peak toward the end of 2017, according to Fitch Ratings, an outlook that may salve investor sentiment in one of Asia’s worst-performing stock markets this year.

Thai economic growth is subdued but relatively stable at about 3%, signaling a slower expansion in bad loans in the months ahead and an eventual peak by year’s end or just after, said Parson Singha, senior director for financial institutions at Fitch Ratings in Bangkok.

"It depends a lot on how the economic cycle goes," Parson said in an interview Monday. "Growth has been relatively weak for the past several years, but at the same time it does look like the business environment has not been fundamentally poor, and banks have been tightening their underwriting standards."