Mr. Pisit Serewiwattana, President of Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand), revealed that EXIM Thailand is ready to lead the market by cutting down the Bank’s lending interest rate, comprising Minimum Overdraft Rate (MOR), Minimum Loan Rate (MLR) and Minimum Retail Rate (MRR) from 5.985% per annum, to only 5.75% per annum, which is the lowest in the banking industry today, effective from March 19, 2020. This aims to support and enable the Bank’s customers and Thai entrepreneurs to carry on their international trade and investment uninterruptedly with lower operating costs amid the current global and Thai economic uncertainties sparked by the Covid-19 outbreak.
In addition, EXIM Thailand has in place Debt Suspension Scheme for Exporters amid Coronavirus Outbreak. Under the scheme, the Bank has allowed suspension of principal repayment and interest for 6 months for customers with long-term and short-term credit lines with the Bank and affected by the Covid-19 spread, and expanded insurance protection for exporters after shipment or those in the process of shipment to China. The Bank has also offered credit programs with special interest rates lower than the MLR and MRR for entrepreneurs of all sectors and all sizes, such as EXIM Investment and Production Efficiency Enhancement Credit Scheme, which provides long-term loan facility to encourage entrepreneurs in all industrial sectors to purchase and improve their machinery and equipment or factories in order to uplift production efficiency and add value to Thai export goods, with a special interest rate of 2% per annum in the first 2 years, and EXIM Liquidity Enhancement for Exporters Scheme, aiming to support SMEs that are exporters, importers for export-oriented producers, and producers for exporters, with offering of short-term and long-term loan choices to reduce their debt repayment burden and increase their business liquidity with higher working capital to fund their export activities or improvement of their machinery, factories and manufacturing technology, with a special interest rate of 3.99% per annum in the first 2 years.
“EXIM Thailand takes the lead in this move to cooperate with the public and private sectors in bringing Thai economy and export sector get through this hard time. We aim to support Thai entrepreneurs, SMEs in particular, so that they can operate their businesses at lower costs amid the current unprecedented pandemic that has increasingly and severely hit the global community. We will keep abreast of the situation and find ways to assist Thai entrepreneurs in coping with the economic impacts, both internally and externally,” added Mr. Pisit.