The Bank of Thailand ramped up its warning that escalating household debt in recent years is posing a risk to the country's financial stability and warrants close monitoring.
Two panels under the central bank - the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and the Financial Institutions Policy Committee - issued the statement on Saturday.
"Even though a portion of household debt was for houses and durable assets, the rapid increase could reduce household liquidity while threatening their debt service ability when risks increase," the statement said.
The minutes of the MPC's policy rate call on May 29 also hinted that worries over household debt and still-strong credit growth had prevented the committee from aggressively cutting the policy interest rate.
Both the central bank and the Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Office have warned domestic consumption remained weak in April.
Bank of Thailand data show household debt accelerated to 78% of gross domestic product last year from 63% at the end of 2010.
The rapid pace is a cause for concern considering the figure stood at 44% at the end of the first quarter of 2003.
Household debt totalled 8.82 trillion baht in 2012 or 439,000 baht per household, based on 20.1 million households at the end of the year.