The policy debate on personal loans has a second component too, i.e. possible macroeconomic
effects. There is a concern that lending might be too much focused on consumer loans and thus
neglect financing of true entrepreneurial activities. This is a well-known theme from many
developed economies, such as the US in particular, and an assessment is equally difficult to make
for the Thai case. This difficulty is not at least caused by severe information deficits: first, there is
no solid information on how personal loans are used by borrowers—it is known that some of
these loans have investment character, either for educational purpose or for short-term small
enterprise financing. Second, there is some difficulty in assessing an appropriate level of
household debt, one part of which is personal loans. Seen from the perspective of Malaysia for
example, the Thai level of household debt with 33% to GDP is low as Malaysia has 63%. Third, household debt can have various reasons. In Thailand, housing loans make slightly above 50% of
total household debt which seems to be rather low in comparison to other countries, indicating
that consumer loans are rising possibly too fast.