Thailand's Finance Minister Says There Is No Plan to Raise the Public Debt Ceiling

Thailand's Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said there are no plans to raise the public debt ceiling and that the current limit of 70% of GDP is reasonable. According to Sina Finance, Ekniti said at an economic forum on Wednesday that his task is to reduce public debt as a share of GDP and maintain fiscal discipline. As of the end of September, public debt stood at 68.6% of GDP. The government plans to use some remaining funds from a 200 billion baht borrowing program to encourage the transportation sector to switch to cleaner fuels. The government had previously approved allocating 73 billion baht from the program, mainly to fund a household rooftop solar subsidy program. Citing rising travel costs and the need to support tourism and attract more foreign visitors, the Finance Ministry has suspended plans to impose an exit tax of about 1,000 baht.