Thailand explores borrowing of $30.6b to finance stimulus

Bloomberg

Thailand said it will explore domestic and foreign funding options for planned borrowing of 1 trillion baht ($30.6 billion) to finance a major economic stimulus programme.
The debt is a key element of a 1.9-trillion-baht package to help low-income households, farmers and companies reeling from the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy may contract 5.3% this year, according to the Bank of Thailand.
“We’ll explore all possibilities,” Patricia Mongkhonvanit, director general of the Finance Ministry’s Public Debt Management Office, said in an interview. “We won’t borrow 1 trillion baht all at once. We’ll proceed gradually, as the funding need arises.”
The scale of the borrowing led to questions about how the government would achieve it. Patricia said the ministry is looking at a mix of instruments, including government bonds, treasury bills, promissory notes, term loans and savings bonds. Tapping international organisations like the Asian Development Bank and foreign debt markets are also options, she said.
“Our objective is mainly to tap the local market first,” Patricia said. “There is ample domestic liquidity and demand for our products.” A pending executive decree will permit the fund-raising efforts to run through September 2021, a time-frame designed to give officials flexibility since the duration of the outbreak is uncertain.