Ministry of Finance, Cabinet assigns Government Savings Bank to lend to retail and SMEs another hundred billion baht, hoping to reduce costs, draw funds into the system, and push GDP up by 0.27 percent. Mr. Pornchai Thiravet, Director of the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, revealed that due to the economic slowdown, production costs and general product prices have increased, affecting people's cost of living. The cost of doing business has increased, while SMEs have decreased profits and are facing liquidity problems due to their inability to access sources of funds in the system. The Ministry of Finance sees that if the problem is not resolved urgently, it may have a wide impact on the Thai economy. The Cabinet meeting therefore assigned the Government Savings Bank to launch a loan project to help people and SME entrepreneurs, with the following main points: 1. The loan project under the economic stimulus measures and to help retail customers, which has been impleme nted since April 2024, consists of 4 low-interest loan projects for the real estate sector, divided into 2 low-interest loans for customers in the real estate business: GSB D-Home loan to stimulate the economy and GSB D-Home loan to build houses for Thai people; and 2 low-interest loans to provide real estate entrepreneurs with capital to build housing projects and take care of retail customers: GSB home loans for Thai people and Top Up loans to allow retail customers to build their own homes or purchase additional home furnishings. In addition, there is a group of low-interest loans to alleviate the impact and solve household debt problems by refinancing loans with high interest rates in the market to use low-interest loans from the Government Savings Bank under the 'Social Refinance Loan' project, with 4 measures, divided into refinancing loans for grassroots customers, including 2 measures: refinancing loans for self-employed people (Re-Nano) and refinancing loans for personal loans (Re P-loan), and refin ancing loans for retail customers, including 2 measures: refinancing loans for credit card debt (Re-Card) and refinancing loans for housing loans (Re-Home). GSB Boost Up Low Interest Loan Project by Government Savings Bank provides low interest funding sources of 100 billion baht to participating financial institutions, both commercial banks and specialized financial institutions, at an interest rate of 0.01 percent per year for a period of 2 years. The financial institutions will then provide loans to SMEs at an interest rate not exceeding 3.5 percent per year for a period of 2 years. The credit line per person does not exceed 40 million baht for all financial institutions. SMEs can apply for loans until December 30, 2025, using the same conditions as participating financial institutions to support SMEs who cannot access commercial bank loans. The Director of the FPO added that the Ministry of Finance has given great importance to helping the people and SME entrepreneurs to improve the quality of life of t he people and develop the potential of SME entrepreneurs, hoping that they will be an important cog in driving the country's economic system. It is expected that the said project of the Government Savings Bank will help create money into the economic system and affect the expansion of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by approximately 0.27 percent. Source: Thai News Agency