won a landslide election victory<\/a> with the backing of rural voters but is now facing the heat as a war-driven price shock deepens Thailand\u2019s farm debt crisis.<\/p>\nOnly months into its four-year term, support for Anutin\u2019s administration is already eroding.<\/p>\n
About 57 per cent of respondents told a poll by Suan Dusit University in May they had little or no expectation of the government\u2019s performance, a sharp reversal from March when 68 per cent of those polled had expressed optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government will roll out further measures to support people and boost confidence in its work,\u201d said deputy government spokesperson Ploythalay Laksameesaengjan, adding higher oil prices driven by the war were beyond the administration’s control.<\/p>\n
The struggles of Thai farmers underscore the broader pressures weighing on South-east Asia\u2019s second-largest economy, which has struggled with low growth.<\/p>\n
Thailand has also lagged peers since the pandemic because its economy is reliant on slow-recovering tourism while domestic demand remains weak, constrained by high household debt. Nearly 78 per cent of respondents in the May poll called for urgent action on rising living costs.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas has already described the situation as a \u201ccost-of-living crisis\u201d, acknowledging the growing strain on ordinary households.<\/p>\n
However, after years of stimulus spending the government\u2019s fiscal policy options are limited, while inflation is projected to breach the Bank of Thailand\u2019s target of 1-3 per cent in 2026, as the central bank has held its key interest rate at 1 per cent.<\/p>\n
Overall household debt in Thailand stands at 86.7 per cent of gross domestic product, among the highest in Asia, reflecting weak income growth, past easy credit and economic shocks, blunting the impact of government stimulus.<\/p>\n
To ease the hardship, Anutin\u2019s government has introduced support measures and launched a 176-billion-baht (S$6.88 billion) consumer subsidy programme, as part of a wider 400-billion-baht borrowing decree, which is facing a legal challenge from opposition parties.<\/p>\n
Even targeted government schemes, such as subsidies of about 1,000 baht per rai (0.16 hectares) for rice farmers, have done little to offset the rise in fertiliser and fuel prices,\u00a0as they are insufficient to cover farmers\u2019 expenses, said Pramote Charoensilp, president of the Thai Agriculturists Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure on the government is not just economic,\u201d said Ngamprawan Ehsomnuk, dean at Suan Dusit University\u2019s school of law and politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a crisis of confidence in whether the government can govern effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many, including 64-year-old Ayutthaya rice farmer Phayong Saengthong, the current situation feels insurmountable.<\/p>\n
After decades of farming, Phayong owes more than one million baht to lenders. The rising fertiliser and fuel costs, compounded by weak rice prices, added a further 200,000 baht in losses after his latest harvest.<\/p>\n
Thai rice prices slumped in 2025, with export prices hitting an 18-year low, mainly due to ample global supply and intense competition from India.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe debt is overwhelming,\u201d Phayong said.<\/p>\n
He is not alone. More than half of the 3.73 million farm borrowers at the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives are ensnared in a \u201cdebt trap\u201d they are unlikely to escape before retirement, the central bank\u2019s research institute said in an April report.<\/p>\n
With formal loans exhausted, Phayong said he relies on suppliers to extend him credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they stop giving me goods on credit, I may have to stop growing rice,\u201d he said, echoing the frustrations of many of the around 4.6 million rice farming households across rural Thailand who thought they would get more government assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no clear measures to help farmers,\u201d said Pramote, who plans to push for stronger support at a national rice policy board meeting on June 11.<\/p>\n
If paddy prices were closer to 10,000 baht per tonne, compared to about 7,800 currently, farmers could still find a way out, said Chaon, who farms on 11.5 hectares of land in Ayutthaya and owes the state lender about half a million baht.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith costs so high and rice prices so low, there\u2019s nothing left but debt,\u201d he said. REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BANGKOK \u2013 Ahead of Thailand\u2019s February general election, politicians often came to court voters like 69-year-old rice farmer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-487022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}