Mr. Banthoon Lamsam, Chairman of the Board of KBank, said that the Thai economy will likely post steady growth in 2019. Despite sagging demand abroad, domestic spending, buoyed by both public and private investments, may play a more important role in bolstering the Thai economic performance. It is expected the Thai GDP growth will reach 4.3 percent in 2019, which would be lower than the 4.6 percent pace projected for 2018 due to the slowdown in the export sector and tourism caused by the high 2018 base and the protracted US-China trade dispute that may dampen the global trade overall. Major drivers for the Thai economy in 2019 may include steady public infrastructure investment and the scheduled general election that will likely help reinvigorate investment climate overall while Thailand's interest rates will be on the upward trend amid lofty household debt.
Amid numerous challenges, KBank's 2019 business operations will continue to focus on our "Customer Centricity" philosophy. With this mantra, we will press ahead with the "Customers' Life Platform of Choice" strategy by using K PLUS, which has the highest number of users of any mobile banking applications in the country, to introduce financial and lifestyle services to meet the needs of individual customers. Our financial and IT capabilities will be enhanced further to allow KBank to be more responsive to every situation and become a data-driven bank, thus paving the way toward being a "Bank of Sustainability".
With regard to overall goals for 2019, KBank looks forward to achieving loan growth of 5-7%, which would be consistent with the 2019 economic growth, breaking down into corporate loan growth at 3-5%, SME loan growth at 2-4% and retail loan growth at 9-12%. We also set growth targets for our net interest margin (NIM) at 3.3-3.5%, and non-interest income growth at -5 to -7%. KBank's NPL ratio is projected at 3.3-3.7%.
Mr. Banthoon added that KBank continues to operate business, based on being a "Bank of Sustainability", and under appropriate risk management and good governance. We are also building a balance in economic, social and environmental dimensions via strategies that will enable us to achieve and create sustainable returns over the long term. Such a sustainable development philosophy has been instilled in all of our operations until it becomes part of our corporate DNA, which has helped create maximum benefit for all stakeholders and promote sustainable growth to Thailand.